God wants the best for us.
Maybe it's an obvious statement, but it's become
truer to me recently as I've started to dwell on certain parts of God's
character.
It says in the bible to cast all your anxieties on Him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). Have you ever thought about how good that is!? God loves us sooooo much that he wants to take on our stresses. (I don't even want my stresses, so I would never offer to take on other people's, too!). God is giving us an opportunity to live without worry but for some reason, we find it hard to let go of certain things in our life and trust Him to take care of it.
It says in the bible to cast all your anxieties on Him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). Have you ever thought about how good that is!? God loves us sooooo much that he wants to take on our stresses. (I don't even want my stresses, so I would never offer to take on other people's, too!). God is giving us an opportunity to live without worry but for some reason, we find it hard to let go of certain things in our life and trust Him to take care of it.
Don't laugh...but lately I've realised I
am totally obsessed with sleep! The amount of sleep I have each night
determines my mood and my productivity for the following day.
I started calculating at the start
of each week how many hours sleep I'd get each night based on what other plans
I have. If I was getting seven hours or less I would decide that it wasn't
going to be a good week. How was I supposed to have a good week if I was
choosing to believe it was going to go badly before it had even begun?
God has already said that I can
hand my anxieties over to Him. But rather than accept it, I will purposely not
read my bible in the morning so that I can get a tiny bit longer in bed. I was
choosing 15 minutes extra sleep in the hope that I would have more energy for
the day, instead of spending 15 minutes with the source of life and energy
itself!
We all do it. And it is often the
things that are good that can land us in the sticky situation of control. It
could be your job, your family, or your relationship. All are great and
wonderful things, but if we put more dependency on them for our joy, peace and
satisfaction, then we are setting ourselves up to be bound by worry and stress
when we have already been gifted freedom!
Three things to consider if you are finding
it hard to let go, are:
1) Everything comes from God anyway.
James 1:17 "Every good and perfect gift is from above."
James 1:17 "Every good and perfect gift is from above."
2) Because a God made everything, there is
nothing that I need that he can't provide (yay!)
Philippians 4:19 "God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:19 "God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus."
3) God wants to give you everything
you need.
Matthew 7:11 "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him."
Matthew 7:11 "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him."
But have you asked? The first step in giving
over the control is asking God to provide you with whatever you felt that
person or thing was providing you with. Maybe it's love, security,
happiness or something else.
I realised I needed to let go of my
obsession with sleep. I had to make a decision to trust God that He would give
me the energy I need for each day. I started practically by not moaning about
being tired and then I progressed little by little from there. God has totally
blessed me in it and transformed my mindset. And he can do the same for you,
however big or small the situation may be.
I love this picture. When we
have something good we hold on tightly to it, but God wants us to give it over
to him because He knows He can make it ten times better. We won't see the
outcome until we trust Him enough to let go, and the sad thing is that many of
us spend so much of our lives hanging on to things and trying to stay in
control that we miss out on an even greater gift that God has in store for us.
Think now if there is
anything in your life that may be taking God's place, then let go and let God!
Emma
xx
I was literally just listening to Dewayne Woods-'Let Go Let God' when I stumbled upon this post. Just the encouragement I needed๐๐พ๐๐พ๐๐พ thank you xx
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you found this encouraging! Thanks for getting in touch :) x
ReplyDelete