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Jun 04, 2024 18:00pm

The Secret to Life

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It is a wretched thing to admit the control I insist on keeping over my life. I know it is wrong, yet I continue in my grasp, holding too tightly to what I believe best. There must be a name for this sin that refuses to leave my side. The opposition in my soul to submit makes me ungovernable. God, govern my life. I give the management of every detail into your care, I pray. The cycle of submitting and regaining control holds me in its grasp. The minute plans veer in a direction I don’t deem best; I struggle to stay under the submission of God’s will. I want to despise this about myself, but at the moment, I’m too focused on striving to pave the way for my own ideas, even to notice sin has entered the building and clutched me in its grasp. Again.

Trusting God enough to stay submitted to his leading is not our natural bent. Our inclinations tell us we know what is best in most situations. We replace God and stubbornly proclaim, “I KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR MY LIFE. PLANS TO GO MY WAY IN THE MANNER I DEEM BEST!” The unsubmitted will is destined for failure. I want the direction of my days to remain under the control of God’s care, but I don’t know how to stop interfering with the way He has chosen.

If I could tell you the secret to staying submitted to God’s plans, would you want to know it? It is difficult to discuss, and I will warn you, it is painful. Painful as it may be, I have found a way to stay longer under God’s care. But it usually hurts. The sting weighs heavily on the heart. It feels like an aching burden as the battle between our will and His clashes within.

The secret to staying submitted to God’s plans for our lives lies in dying to ourselves. It requires a crucifixion of the will. It demands we lay our ideas, along with the management of each detail, onto the anvil of sacrifice. It means giving up our idea of how things should play out. And that hurts. But here’s the fantastic part about it. On the other side of crucifying our way lies LIFE. It holds more wholeness than we can comprehend. The way on the other side of death radiates wholeness. The way to Jesus is marked with deaths. It is equally marked with new life.

Our fallen emotions lie and tell us God’s way cannot be trusted. It’s a trap. We buy into it far too quickly.
The lure to doubt God’s goodness urges us to continue on the path of our own doing.

Here’s the hard reality: Both ways end in death. I go my own way, and it’s opposed to where God is leading; it ends in death. I go God’s way, and it is also probably going to require death if it is different from what I had in mind. But here is the difference. God’s path promises life. There is a resurrection on the other side of it. That means LIFE.

We have a choice in the matter—every day.

God, help us choose death to produce life. Forgive our insistence on wrongly choosing death that only begets more death. You have promised that we have everything we need to submit our lives to your care. We cannot do it alone, and we cannot do it apart from you, Lord.

For further reading and prayer, see Luke 9:23-25