The Lion Roars: Not In Control

Life is not controllable. We cannot put our lives in a little box of our own making. Who knows what will happen tomorrow? James tells us in James 4:13-15 (NIV): “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”These verses put things into proper perspective regarding our control - or more rightly, our lack of it - do they not? What we do need to control - through the power of the Holy Spirit - is our attitudes regarding what does happen. This does not negate our planning rather it negates writing our plans in permanent markers or on cement. One thing is a constant and that is change. God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts not our thoughts – they are much higher – so very much higher.    
God desires for us to become like Jesus and the results are anything but instantaneous. To become like the Master takes our lifetimes. There is no shortcut to holiness. It is a daily denial of self and one of taking up our crosses and following hard after Him. This allows us to take hold of the life that is truly life. We open ourselves up to grace giving way to grace and give our illusion of control back to God. The best place to be is standing firm in all the will or God, mature and fully assured. There is also no such a thing as self-saving – Jesus is our Savior. He leads and guides us in the way we should go. He is our Good Shepherd and we can trust Him with our lives and with all the lives we hold near and dear as we prayerfully place them into His loving, all-powerful hands. We set our focus on our Leader of the Way and we walk as He walked through all the highs and lows along the path to eternal life.
Flesh alone will fail us here, we simply lack the power in and of ourselves. We must be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, which every believer in Jesus has, to achieve this great goal. Paul tells us in Romans 8:9-11 (NIV): “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” 
The Holy Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies enabling us to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel. We can’t save ourselves and we cannot live the Christian life apart from the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is He who gives us life and life to the full. This is very great news – no self-saving allowed – no self-transformation measures up either. We have been saved and continue to be saved by Christ alone. This is not instantaneous and continues through our lifetimes yet, like Enoch who walked with God, we walk with God – progressively becoming more and more conformed to His image until He says come on home. And it is always more than worth it. This takes our lifetimes. Remember as well, no one ever outgives God and He will be no man’s debtor.