Feeling You're Not In Control?
Henry Omotayo
Feeling You’re Not In Control? (Judges 6:1-6)
Message No. 0500 | Twitter @GodandUs |
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Most people believe that putting an offender under house arrest is like zero punishment for the offense committed. Well, admittedly, a house arrest is far less serious than putting someone in jail. However, the effect of a house arrest on an individual may not be so easily dismissed, without going through the same situation. The individual who is forced to stay in his or her house for a prolonged period feels like he is completely out of control of his own life. He is unable to go out as before, unable to visit people, go to restaurants, stores, concerts or movies, unable to drive or be driven and unable to do several other things that he or she would love to do.
In Judges chapter 6, Israel lost control over a major source of sustenance, to a terrorizing adversary – Midian. For seven years, Israel planted crops and nurtured them, but when the crops grew, the Midianites destroyed them. In Judges 6:3-6, the Bible records:
So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.
Imagine how frustrating and annoying it is to plant and water your crops and to start planning what percentage of the harvest your household would eat and what percentage would be sold to make money for the family, and then for an enemy to come, year after year, to destroy your produce, not only frustrating your efforts, but also putting your family in hunger and poverty.
The situation we find ourselves in today has shown that we are not in control; not us, not our leaders and not our governments. We are all under some kind of house arrest and everyone feels frustrated. The internet is filled with several mechanisms for coping with this situation, but we are not coping. People have recently taken to the streets, in desperation and violation of the stay-at-home orders, to protest those orders.
The biggest boasters and loudest noisemakers of this world have suddenly found themselves weak and incapacitated, in the face of a common virus. An invisible agent of science has caught the world napping and scrambling for answers. I thought science has advanced so much that we are already planning to manufacture our own human beings! How come, then, that we are so incapable of protecting what God has giving to us? How come that we are unable to keep the living safe?
Yet, in the midst of the frustration that we find ourselves, all is not lost. The world and its greatest leaders might not be in control, but I know who is. His name is Jesus. In Isaiah 45:6, the Bible says:
That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun, that there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
So, if you are feeling that you are not in control, remember that no one is, nor have you ever been. There is only one controller of heaven and earth – God. He, it is, who can do and undo. He knows the name of every plague and every virus. He knows the pathogenic nature and scientific properties of each virus and He knows how to disable them. He does not need 18 months to study the virus and develop a vaccine.
Until Israel realized their sin and cried unto God for help, they were at the mercy of the Midianites, who frustrated them and drove them to the lowest level of poverty. When they cried, God raised up Gideon to deliver them. He delivered them with so little effort that they were shocked: from 32,000, God reduced the army to 300! The world has been busy building weapons in the wrong direction, thinking that they can protect themselves with military might.
God does not save by numbers, nor does He need earthly weapons to set His children free. The great walls of Jericho were destroyed by blowing trumpets and by shouting. What is Coronavirus in the presence of the Almighty God. God’s children have been praying for God to forgive our sins and exert His control over this virus. The scientific agent that God cannot control has never existed. Please let us take our eyes off our leaders and fix them on our God. He only can solve this problem. Let us continue to pray for God to have mercy and help us. We will witness His deliverance very soon, in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen. Please stay safe and remain blessed.
PLEASE ACT NOW:
If you are yet to give your life to Christ, you do not have a covenant with God and His promises do not apply to you. To come under these promises, please surrender your life to Christ today, by praying this prayer:
Lord I know that I am a sinner and I am unable to save myself. I am sorry for my sins and I pray that you please forgive me. I am aware that Your Son Jesus died for my sins and I accept Him as my Lord and savior. I surrender my life unto you from this moment. Please take control of my entire being and help me to be obedient to your Word, going forward. Thank you, Lord, for hearing me. I have prayed in Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you prayed the foregoing prayer, you have just been born again. Please find a Bible believing church in your area and ask to see the pastor. Let him or her know that you have just given your life to Christ and s/he will guide you on next steps in your journey as a child of God. The Lord bless you!
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