When Being In Control Isn’t Working
Aren’t you tired? Overwhelmed? Frustrated...with being in control? It’s not working well, is it? Let’s try something new today.
I’m an independent person. Always have been. Have you heard of the strong-willed child? That was me. I’m sure there’s a deeper explanation for why I am the way I am. But ultimately, what drives much of what I’ve done is my desire to protect myself, take care of myself, and prove myself capable.
This also means that I don’t ask for help. It's very hard for me to ask for help. Even though I’m surrounded by people who care about me and would love to help me. I literally can’t ask. It’s paralyzing.
Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you have a different flavor.
Do you want to appear successful?
Do you want people to see your accomplishments?
Do you need affirmation?
Do others’ opinions drive what you do?
Or do you need to be in control? I resonate with this one.
We want to be in the driver’s seat. We want to set the timeline and the pace. Control is power.
We strive, we work, we plan, and we pry open doors. We think we can handle it better, but we end up acting like the Israelites in the wilderness.
While God was giving Moses the 10 commandments, the people were down at the camp, impatient. Moses was taking too long. If God was going to move this slow, they wanted a different god. So, they built one. A god they created, to do what they wanted. A god they could control.
God in His holiness and faithful nature was ticked. Surely this wasn’t the people He chose. Moses tries to intercede for them and ask for forgiveness. God upholds his plan to bring them to the promised land, but he sends a plague as punishment for the golden calf.
God says..."Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Exodus 33:3
God had every right to wipe them all out. Their sin separated them from their God. Instead, He removes His presence.
But Moses mediated for Israel based on God’s promises and character. God was willing to continue with the plan, but His presence was another thing. God’s holy presence can’t dwell with sinful people. (Obviously, God is using this narrative to set up our need for Jesus--the true mediator and Immanuel, God with us). But in this part of the larger story, Moses is showing us what we all need…"Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.”
Exodus 33:12-13
So far, God has said He would send an angel to go instead of His own personal presence. Moses wasn’t taking that for an answer. He knew that’s not the kind of God we serve…that’s not the kind of promise God made.
And although Moses couldn’t argue that the people didn’t deserve this, they really messed up. Exodus tells us that Moses’ anger burned hot, too. But he wasn’t standing on Israel deserving anything but on who God said He was.
It wasn’t about the people’s sin but about God’s mercy and grace. Luckily, we aren’t responsible for holding our relationship with God together. He is, and does.
God answers in verse 14…"And [God] said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Exodus 33:14
God responds, “Okay, Moses, I’ll go with you...” But Moses knows he needs God to go with Israel, His people. It's close, but as their leader, Moses mediates once more…"And [Moses] said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
Exodus 33:15-16
Moses speaks on behalf of God’s people, interceding and mediating. He knows that this is exactly what sets God and His people apart
from all other gods and religions. Not a distant god barking off orders. Not a golden calf that can’t even talk. Not a man-made god.
But God with us…"And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
Exodus 33:17
Because Moses stood in the gap for the people, God honored him. Moses and God had the most intimate relationship. They spoke face to face. God is willing to go with Israel based on his relationship with Moses.
Moses’ intercession is a foreshadowing and type of Christ’s intercession and mediation for us. Because of God’s relationship with Jesus, we are grafted in.
But outside of all the New Testament implications, I want to focus on Moses’ response...“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.” Or you could say, “If you’re not going, I’m not going.”Moses knew there was no point in trying to get to the Promised Land without God. He knew there was nothing he could accomplish without God. He had already seen the sinfulness of man--the fickleness, the selfishness, the absolute worthlessness. They could do nothing without their God.If God didn’t go with them, what’s the point?
The same is true for us.
God has asked you to do something, and you’ll need Him to be able to do it. He’s asked you to go somewhere, and you’ll need him to go with you.
You need him to choose a major.
You need him to graduate.
You need him to find a job.
You need him to get pregnant.
You need him to stay pregnant.
You need him to raise your children.
You need him to find your spouse.
You need him to keep you married.
There’s no point in trying if God’s not with us. We can’t fulfill what He’s called us to without Him. We need His presence and power every single day.
Sure, we are independent, hard-working, strong-willed, smart, accomplished people. But we can only do so much in our own strength. I don’t know about you, but I can hit a wall with the best of them:I get burnt out.
I’m overwhelmed to the point of tears.
I’m exhausted.
I lack creativity.
I can’t solve problems.
I come up short.
There will always be limitations if I go by myself. And honestly, I don’t want to go without God either.Anything worth doing is done with God.
What does this look like? For me, it’s a daily surrender. When I’m about to write or study or record, I get on my knees (for real, it changes things). I put my palms up and I ask God to come. I ask for the Spirit to fill me. I ask for His words and His strength.
And usually throughout, I’ll try to take control again. I’ll get to a sticky point and get frustrated. It’s a reminder to look back to Him. Then I’ve got to pray again. Ask Him to take it back from me, to help.
It’s nothing magical. And it might look different for you. But even just becoming aware that He is with you already, and He wants to go with you in what you’re doing. We’ve got to lay down our independence and control, and let him.What I’m Using:
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What I’m Reading:
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