Still in charge of your life? How’s that working out for you?

“Dr. Phil” has a line I like: “How’s that working out for you?”

I find it fits at times when people insist on attempting to live a contradiction. On one hand, they clutch to trying to have control of their lives and living it any way they want. On the other hand, they want God’s blessing.

How’s that working out for you?

It isn’t.

You can’t hold hands with the world and claim to follow Jesus. You certainly cannot live a life practicing sin and have God’s blessing.

It’s like the story about the shipwrecked man who managed to reach an uninhabited island. There, to protect himself against the elements and safeguard the few possessions he managed to salvage, he painstakingly constructed a hut from which he constantly and prayerfully scanned the horizon for any sight of a ship.

Upon his return one evening from searching for food, the man was horrified to find the hut completely enveloped in flames. The remains of the hut, and what possessions he had, smoldered in smoke for hours. Yet by divine mercy this tragedy was turned into a rich blessing. Early the following morning the man awoke to find a ship anchored off the island. When the captain stepped ashore, he explained, “We saw your smoke signal and came.”

Jesus helps us understand what we really need doesn’t come to us until we let go of everything …

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your own soul?'” Matthew 16:24-26.

Are you still clutching for control of your life?

How’s that working out for you?

Scotty