It's been a long time since I've done a Five Minute Friday, but when I saw today's word, I couldn't let another week pass without blogging! It’s great to be back and writing again!! :)
"...The person who lives in right relationship with God
does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the
opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right:
"The person who believes God, is set right by God--and that's the real
life." Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but
only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture:
"The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by
them." Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by
absorbing it completely into himself." Galatians 3:12-13
When something controls us, we are its slave, never its
master. We listen to its dictates and demands. We compromise minor beliefs, time constraints, or relationships here and there until we lose ourselves in what we are doing
not realizing just how much we've shut out the world around us. The larger
picture of life is lost in keeping up with the demands of today.
A gradual shift begins to happen as we notice that it
matters more how the outside looks to everyone else than what's going on in the
inside for a polished image is better than a broken heart; a fake smile is
better than a seeking faith; and a problem-less life is better than a messy life
that's in the midst of fresh spiritual awakening and healing. And at that point, control and the facade of religion has us in its grip!
But what happens when we get to a point in our lives where
we can't keep up the facade of religion, of doing the good church-girl thing? What
happens when something inside of us breaks as we realize that we are allowing a
good and godly system with good and godly people control us, not God, because
we've gotten to a point in our lives where we can't keep our mess contained in
a nice, neat box and all the Christian band-aids aren’t working? What happens
when we hear God calling us out of a godly system back into a relationship with
Him and Him alone? And then as we start to follow His call and sample true freedom, we find ourselves
trapped by all these good things that no longer help us on the journey that
He's called us on and we are not sure what to do about that??
Sometimes we are too scared to let these good and godly things
go because it's all we've ever known. Or, we've invested too much of ourselves,
time, and energy that we can't let go. Or, we've rationalized gut feelings
about situations for so long that it's easier to keep ignoring those feelings than
rock the boat.
Whatever the reason, control will always keep us in a box.
Control will always require us to follow more rules. Control will always make us
do and perform. BUT, when we are beginning to wisen up, the truth in Galatians
3:12-13 smacks us in the face: "Christ
redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely
into himself."
No! We do not have to stay in rule-keeping systems and/or
religions. We do not have to stay in a box. We do not have to be controlled by
anyone or anything but God Himself! God has redeemed us from the tight clutches of control! His ways are the ONLY ways to true, peace-filling,
life-giving freedom! God's freedom is not found
in control, not found in a religion, and
not found in a church building or Christian institution, but it's found solely in Him and in following Him above all else!! (I wish it wouldn't take learning it the hard way to understand this concept!!)
[time! Yay--it feels good to be writing again!!]
* Five Minute Friday
(#FMFparty) gives writers a word prompt. We are encouraged to write whatever
comes to mind about that word in just five minutes. No editing, no
perfection, only writing from the heart. To find out more, visit
http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/. This week's word is
"CONTROL".
