Wouldn’t it be great if we had a remote control for all of the trials we go through? We could mute the sound of thunder while the storm is raging or fast-forward past it so we don’t have to deal with it at all. We could pause the good times and even push rewind to go back and fix a mistake. If things are getting too intense, we could just hit stop until we feel like continuing. We could turn the volume up on the compliments and turn it down on all the criticism.
There are a lot more things we could do, but I think you understand what I’m saying. Life would be much easier to deal with if we just had the power to control certain things. When things start to get crazy and we feel like we can’t get a grip on things, we tend to either get extremely angry or very depressed. We some times stand in the midst of all the chaos and just want to scream, “I CAN’T TAKE ANYMORE”!!! It would be a little better if you could just make it ease up a bit.
Well…I can’t give you a remote for your life, but I can let you know what you are in control of. You are in control of yourself. You do not have the power to determine what happens to you with whatever it is that your facing, but you do have the power to determine how you react to what is happening to you. You can’t go back in time and fix a mistake that you made, but control yourself and make sure you don’t make the same mistake again. You can’t stop the storm, but you can stop allowing it to make you so angry. As much as you would love to turn the volume down on your critics, just learn to ignore them and remind yourself of who you are in Jesus.
Whatever you are dealing with currently, make sure you’re in control of your actions. Be careful what you say in response to a personal attack. Sometimes the enemy will send things our way to see if he can get us out of control. When you pray this morning, be sure to ask God to help you have complete control over your own body, spirit and mind. That’s the only remote control you’ll ever have.
So true!