Can I Let Go and
Let God Do?
He says, “Be still, and know that I
am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm
46:10 (NIV)
Yesterday was
one of the pretty hard days for the BDS 2012 batch. They were having their
practical exams and the patients who promised to come didn’t turn up and those
who did, the externals were not happy with them. Between 12 and 2 in the
afternoon I got five calls from students of BDS 2012. They were completely
lost. Not knowing what to do. They tried their level best. They called me
asking if I could help them find a patient from the village where we have our
mission work. My wife and myself we both went with three of them in car and
somehow God worked and they were able to do their practical. On the way one of
the student remarked, “Achen, we have been running around like nuts and still
we don’t have a patient. There are others who didn’t do much running around and
they are done with the practical. I am forced to doubt whether God is really
seeing all this. These thoughts were tempting me to believe that God will not
provide but I know that’s foolish of me.”
Is it possible
to be still in situations like these? God’s Word Translation provides little
more light to the word still. Let go of your concerns! Then
you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth.
Every day we have
to decide who’s going to be in control of our life — we or God. That choice, I believe
is a battle. There are things in our life that we want to control. We want to
make our own rules. But stress relief always starts with letting God be God. It
always starts with saying, “God, I’m giving up control, because you can control
the things that are out of control in my life.”
Yesterday was a
tough day, in fact the toughest that the BDS 2012 batch had faced till now. Today
that might be for one of us. I don’t know what I am going to face today or this
week. And I am sure you don’t, either. But I can already tell you what God
wants you to do: Let go, and know. Know that God is in control. Let go, and
know!
Whenever we face
out-of-control situations, we tend to go to one of two extremes and I saw that yesterday
in some of the students.
For some of us,
the more out-of-control our life gets, the harder we try to control it. Some of
us do the exact opposite: We just give up! Which of these reactions is better? Both
of these reactions to stress are foolish. They don’t work. Instead of being a
victim or becoming hyper controlling, we need to pray the prayer of surrender.
The number one
reason we’re under stress is because we’re in conflict with God. We’re trying
to control things that only God can control. We can’t control our future or our
past or any of that stuff. The more we do it, the more we’re trying to play
God, and that puts us in opposition to God. Not only are we going to lose that
conflict, but we’re also going to be tired.
I once happened
to hear the Serenity Prayer, which is based on the Lord’s Prayer. The last
eight lines to the prayer will be of some help to many of us in such times of
stress and crises: “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time,
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that you will make all things right
if I surrender to your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and
supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen.”
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