Archives for January 2020

Many times over the years I have been surprised by people, including being let down by them. People can be fickle and selfish and change their minds about things they seemed quite committed to. 

I have had to deal with situations where people wanted to abandon their marriage, abandon their ministry, get out of home, quit their career or react to one thing or another.

I have had to realise in all of these experiences, that I can’t control people. 

I can appeal to them, but usually by the time I’m trying to do that it’s too late. They have already bought into the ideas that have been sold to them.

At times I’ve given people advice that seems to come from God. I could have wished to have such advice myself in difficult situations. But when I check up on the people later I find they have completely ignored my advice and tangled themselves in the very things I want to protect them from.

In church, business, family, community and friendships there can be some nasty surprises when someone suddenly turns on you. No matter how much that might hurt there is usually nothing you can do. There’s nothing you can do because, try as you might, you can’t control people.

What’s more, you aren’t supposed to control people. God gave each of us a free will and it’s not supposed to be taken from us by others.

People will surprise you, because you can’t control them or their decisions. But here’s the good news: You can control how you react to them.

You don’t have to be angry and bitter because of the choices others make. Life is built on choice, not chance. You will be surprised and caught off guard at times by people who will head off on some tangent or suddenly get excited about some direction that cuts across what you expected.

Just as they are allowed to make their choices, you have the power of choice. You can choose to let go and trust them to God. You can choose to forgive them for hurting you and letting you down. You can choose to trust God and God’s promise that all things work out for good.

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 

So, if you are struggling with your feelings about how someone has treated you, or the choices they’ve made, or the way they messed up your plans, stop trying to control them. Stop being angry at them or trying to punish them for not fitting in with your wishes.

Stop trying to control them, and start controlling your reactions. 

Give your disappointment and frustration to God. Give your fears for them to God. Give your ruined dreams to God.

Oh, and stop trying to control God too. He is even harder to control than the people in your life. 

The one you are supposed to control is yourself, making wise choices about a godly response and the response of faith.

I’m not just spouting off a nice spiritual idea. I’ve had to live this many times in my life. I’ve had to forgive a bunch of people through the years. People have surprised me and let me down over the decades. I don’t like it and I don’t want it if I can avoid it, but I can’t control them, and I know that. So I turn to controlling myself and my responses. I choose to find and give away God’s grace, as best I can. I’m no saint, but I trust I’m not a fool either. If it’s outside my control I’m not going to destroy myself trying to control it.

I trust you are smart enough to work that one out too.

Now here’s the personal challenge. We are supposed to have self-control.

“God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2Timothy 1:7

“Add to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness.” 2Peter 1:6

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no Law.” Galatians 5:22,23

When we want to control others it is often because we feel put out by what they are doing. It may well be that they have offended us or are frustrating our plans.

We can’t control others, so we must control ourselves, and our reactions, such as our hurt feelings, sense of offence, frustration and anger.

We are at our best when we can control our own responses, and don’t need to control others. It is wonderful to be able to let others go, because we don’t feel there is a score to even or an issue to push or a response that we want to demand from them.

Self-control is a quality that sets us apart from many others.

“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Proverbs 25:28

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that has self-control than he who takes a city.” Proverbs 16:32

So, are you facing a bunch of offences from people you wish would change? Do you struggle with impulses to try to get people to change to suit you? Are you offended by people who let you down, ignore you or are just clueless? Do you wish you could make people do things that will work out better all round?

Your challenge is not to control them, but to control yourself. In fact, not to control yourself by a strong will, but to be in control of yourself because you have died to your selfish impulses and chosen to trust God despite the things others do.

And next time you react to others, or feel hurt by them, or wish they were different, look into yourself and find God’s grace for you, so you can give it to those others. And always keep in mind that You Can’t Control People (just yourself).

I was preaching in Asia almost fifteen years ago and I felt impressed to challenge the faith of people in a particular congregation. 

I now want to challenge your faith with the same message.

The people in that congregation were ordinary people, living in a non-Christian country, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by their position as a minority, facing some suspicion and at times opposition from the wider culture. They had settled into a nice position within their community, not rocking the boat, just quietly going about their Christian faith.

At the same time it seemed they had settled into the same attitude toward God. Instead of expecting God to do wonderful things in and through them they were content with quiet lives, occasionally letting their light shine, but not wanting to shine it too brightly, in case it drew some opposition. They contented themselves with a low-key kind of Christianity.

What stirred in my heart for them was a question. “Who do you think you are?”

Who do you think you are that God won’t do wonderful things in and through you?

Who do you think you are that God can’t use you?

Who do you think you are that the promises of God won’t work for you?

Who do you think you are that God can’t work miracles in you and through you in your community and culture?

I challenged the congregation not to be complacent about their faith or to see themselves as second-rate Christians, unable to experience the fulness of God’s blessings, because they were in some kind of limiting situation.

So let me challenge you too. If you decide God can’t work as wonderfully in you as He did through great men and women in history and in recent history, then ‘Who do you think you are?’

What makes YOU so special that the power of God can’t work in your life? What makes your situation so difficult that God has to withdraw and leave you to the will of those around you? What makes your challenges so great that God can’t solve them?

Who do you think you are? !!!!!

It is terribly arrogant and prideful of you to decide that you can’t ask God to be true to you.

We know that God is no respecter of persons, and will do for all of us what He will do for any of us.

“Then Peter began to speak, I now truly understand that God is no respecter of persons.” Acts 10:34

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.” Deuteronomy 10:17

So why is that not true for you? Who do you think you are that you are excepted from God’s blessings and promises? What makes you so special that what God can and will do for others He can’t and won’t do for you? 

Do you have any idea how arrogant it is for you to think you are a special case? Do you have any idea how highly you elevate yourself when you think even God can’t work in your life and situation?

All of God’s promises have been confirmed in Jesus. The Bible says that those promises have been made a big “Yes!” through Jesus.

“For all the promises of God in Christ are Yes, and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us.” 2Corinthians 1:20

The call of God is to anyone who will respond, no matter who they are or where they are responding from. We see that in the repeated use of the word ‘whosoever’ or ‘whoever’, meaning anyone who chooses to.

“The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17

“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

“Come, all of you who thirst, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost!” Isaiah 55:1

So if God’s door is open wide to all, why is it closed to YOU?

If God is ready to forgive your sins, why is that you can’t be forgiven? If God is ready to pour out His Holy Spirit on you, why is it that you can’t be filled? If God is ready to make you His child, why can’t it happen? If God is ready to show His power in your life, why won’t it appear? If God is ready to lift you out of the pit and set you free, why are you still in slavery?

You are not unique. You are not a special case, outside God’s grace. You are not so controlled by the devil or so deep in your own sin and failure that God can’t deliver you. You are not so stupid that God can’t give you wisdom. You are not so lost that God can’t find you. You are not so troubled that God can’t give you peace. You are not so hopeless that God can’t give you hope. You are not so far gone that God can’t bring you back. You are not so crumpled that God can’t straighten you out and make you a light to the nations.

The worse your situation and the more pathetic your hopelessness, then the more glorious God’s grace will shine as God transforms you. Remember how the Apostle Paul celebrated his weaknesses, so God’s strength could be seen.

“God said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. So I boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2Corinthians 12:9,10

So, if you are disqualified, and if you’ve been on the sidelines for decades, or if you’ve run away from God, or if you’ve tried before and it all failed, or if you’ve been mocked so much you don’t think you could take any more, or if there is any other impediment that keeps you from moving in the power of God, then you have come to think of yourself too highly. You have become arrogant in thinking you are outside God’s grace and too big a challenge for God.

Let me help you by telling you some home truths you need to settle in your heart.

You are useless and hopeless and it is a shame for God to take a moment’s interest in you. There is nothing that commends you to God. You are absolutely failed and done in. You can’t save yourself and you can’t even keep yourself on track. All your best efforts turn out to be useless and an insult to God’s power.

And that brings you into line with every other person on the planet. We all need God’s grace. None of us is righteous and none of us can save ourselves. We all desperately need God to save us and to protect us and to keep us on track.

So stop getting all chewed up about your uselessness. Get used to it. It’s your reality. And it’s the reality of all of us. Once we get that sorted out we can start calling on and relying on the grace of God through Christ and we can start letting God work the miracle grace of salvation in and through us.

I trust you are appropriately corrected and brought into alignment with the truth. So now, when you meet people who think God can’t help them or do things in and through their life you have my permission to steal my message and say to them, “Who Do You Think You Are!”

Years ago I heard a recording of a pilot in a light plane who had been caught unexpectedly in heavy cloud. He had to rely on his instruments but struggled to trust the dials when his own senses seemed to tell him something different.

The pilot spoke with someone at a control tower and called for help. He was instructed to trust his dials but the pilot felt certain they must be wrong. The steady, patient voice of the flight controller kept instructing the pilot to trust the controls on the instrument panel but the pilot became increasingly alarmed and almost hysterical before the call ended abruptly.

The pilot could have lived, if only he had trusted the instrument panel. However, despite learning to fly by instruments, he preferred to rely on his senses and had probably avoided relying on his instruments until this time when he had no choice. His internal instincts were given priority over the instruments on the panel. So, he crashed.

The pilot had not come to place his full faith in the instrument panel. He put his faith in his own senses above his trust in the external reference point that was designed to save his life. He trusted in himself and that cost him his life.

That struggle between our own senses and some external input is very real to Christians. The Bible instructs us to do things that are counter-intuitive. God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. In fact, they are much higher than ours. Much more reliable and based on truth, not human perspective.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8,9

God’s ways include such things as forgiving offenders and loving our enemies. Neither of those things come naturally to people. 

“I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” Matthew 5:44,45

The ‘instrument panel’ tells us to do those things but our natural instinct is toward being offended, being unforgiving, wanting vengeance and so on.

And it is the same way in other areas of life too, such as not resisting evil.

“If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well.” Luke 6:29

While most of us want things to be under control and well thought out in advance, Jesus taught us to trust God on a day to day basis, and not to be over organised in advance.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:34

We are actually told to put away all anxiety, not having a care about anything.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

Consider that God has an instrument panel in front of you as you go through life. It has a bunch of warning and instruction lights that light up in various circumstances. However, you have probably never learned to fly your life by God’s Instrument Panel, but more by your own gut feel and your own instincts.

Like the pilot mentioned earlier, you are in great danger if you do not pay attention to the instrument panel and the information it provides to you. Look at it and follow its instructions, otherwise you will crash into all kinds of problems.

Let me suggest to you a bunch of flashing lights you can expect to see on God’s instrument panel for your life…

“Only Believe”, “Have faith in God”, “In everything give thanks”, “Pray without ceasing”, “Forgive those who offend you, seventy times seven”, “Give and it will be given back to you, good measure, running over”, “Love your enemies”, “Do good to those who persecute you”, “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God”, “Be kind to one another and tenderhearted”, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding”, “the way that seems right to you is the way of death”, “Flee fornication”, “Be holy”, “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established”, “Love one another”, “Love the Lord your God with all your being”, “Hold fast to what you believe”.
Those instructions are just a sample but note that they all seem quite nice on the page. The challenge is whether you can rely on them when your own senses suggest they are off track. Remember that pilot who felt a miss-match between what was on the instrument panel and what he felt he perceived personally. 

Can you be trusted to obey the Word of God when it cuts across what you think and feel would be the right response in a situation?

To help you answer that question let me ask you this. When was the last time you put aside your own ideas and did what God asks you to do, despite the fact that it wasn’t what you would have chosen to do?

If you can give several examples of you doing that, then you’ve learned how to fly through life’s difficulties relying on the instruments in front of you. If you can’t provide even one example, then you’ve done all your flying by your instincts, by the seat of your pants. That’s dangerous and it puts you outside the protection God’s Word provides.

I challenge you today to consciously and prayerfully look for an opportunity to put God’s Word ahead of your instincts and prove to yourself that you can fly by God’s Instrument Panel.