CONTROLLING ME

The world teaches us that whatever is wrong in our life, it is not a result of anything we have done. “Don't blame yourself,” the world says, “someone else caused this to happen. You couldn't help it.” It is time that we take responsibility for what we are, what we believe, what we say, and how we act. No, we are not responsible for circumstances over which we have no control, and it would be self-defeating for us to analyze the cause of each one. But we are responsible for how we respond to failures, trials, problems and life. We are totally responsible for our actions and our reactions. I am responsible for me and how I act...what I say and what I do. Nobody makes me respond the way in which I respond or react. In fact my reaction is all I can control in any situation.

Spiritual growth in Christ is convicting. It doesn't allow me to make excuses. It tells me that I must take responsibility for my bad attitude or my fly-off-the-handle reaction. It means that I should learn from my failure, and if I was responsible for the problem, to make every effort to not create that circumstance again. Spiritual maturity also tells me that the next time I am faced with circumstances either of my own making or not of my own making, I will react in a mature way that exhibits the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The only way that I can have the fruit of the Spirit alive in my life is to allow all the selfishness of myself to be crucified with Christ. When I am willing to make this selfless journey, when I am willing to accept my responsibility for all that I am, and when I am realize that without Him I cannot become my true self, then I have begun the journey to grow deeper in Him.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world,” Paul writes, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). I want to go deeper into His Word, and His Truth. I want my life to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. I want my mind and how I think to be renewed so that I search for God's pleasing and perfect will instead of my own lacking one. I do not want to act or react without Him controlling my words, my thoughts, my actions and my reactions.

What controls me? What controls you? Have we matured to the point where what we say and what we do are controlled by Him and not by an unchanged and immature human nature? These are all questions we must ask ourselves because our lives are shaped from our actions and reactions. God's plan lies ahead, but we cannot discover it until we allow Him to control us with His love and guiding hand. One day we will answer to Him for all our actions, interactions, reactions. We will answer about how we loved, and if we respected each other. I pray that I will be able to say, “Lord, I have been crucified with you, and you have lived within me.”