Out of your Control!!!!

Out of your control!

 

Last week at a men’s meeting, I talked with the men about what we cannot control. It is hard for us to admit we are not in control as men. I believe the enemy sold us lies that if we are in control, everything will be fine. It gives us a false sense of security that is quickly shattered when things go wrong. There are so many things that we cannot control, yet we are masters at trying to do it anyway.

 

Life happens to all of us. This weekend, our HVAC died on Friday night. Being Memorial weekend, everything was closed until Tuesday. I called a friend, and he could come on Saturday, but the news was terrible. ‘You will need to replace the old unit.” We were planning to leave this week on a short vacation, but now we had to cancel that so someone can be at home when they replace the unit. The whole weekend was hot and humid in the house. We could not control when the unit would literally breathe its last, no control over the weather or how hot it would be when they could fix it or what it would cost. Everything is out of our control.  

 

What we can control is our choice. How will we react when we face the things we are powerless to change. I see a story in the Bible that gives me some great insight. 

 

Gen. 26:1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

 

Issac is in Canaan, but a famine hits the place while he is there. Canaan was the promised land that God promised his father, Abraham. This is the place where the promises of God become a reality. It confirms that even if we walk into the very thing God promised, we can and will still encounter opposition. A famine is not something anybody wants. It speaks of destruction and even death, and it affects your resources. 

 

So Isaac wanted to do what we all would do. Find a place that has no famine. It sounds like a decent and logical solution. You will have to leave Canaan though.

 

Gen. 26:2  Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.

 

Abraham experienced a similar famine in Canaan before Isaac did. In Gen 12, God calls Abram to go to Canaan and leave everything behind.

 

Gen. 12:1-5 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.

 

Not long after Abram arrived in the promised land, he had to deal with famine. So Abram did what any reasonable man would do. He left for Egypt.

 

Gen. 12:10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land.

 

If you think about it, he left when something happened that was out of his control. But unfortunately, so many men today leave when things get tough. We have a generation of young people that have not seen men stick it out and stay. Instead, they leave their wives, jobs, and family to find something more manageable. 

 

When things get complicated or uneasy, the enemy will always offer you something pleasurable to ease the pain. So, just like Abram, we run. That is why we have fatherless homes, mothers that have to do two jobs to survive and raise the kids. Men give up on relationships, give up on their dreams and give up on doing the hard thing that is necessary. 

 

God would not allow Isaac to do what his daddy did. 

 

Gen. 26:3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

 

The only thing God says to Isaac is: “You will have my presence, and I will take care of you. Men, are we okay if all we have is His word and His presence. God did not promise Isaac He would give grass to the cattle and water for the camels. No – just I will be with you.

 

If we lose everything, what can we hold onto? What are the things that can sustain you when all else fails?

 

Next week we will look at the things I have come to know, things that are famine proof, things I trust God for above all else.