Nothing outside His control

Hello Friends!
Alright I want to take a few moments to bring you a little bit more from Hebrews.

Last time we dove in to Hebrews 1 and the big take-home point was: Jesus is higher than angels.  In Hebrews 2 that same sentiment is carried on but I wanna kind of zone in on Hebrews 2 vs 8 which says ".... Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control..."

If you have watched any of the Passion conference (which I wish I could have seen all of it but I've had to work and the sessions are only up a short time) a lot of what God has been speaking through that conference is that He can do immeasurably more.  And when you think about that fact that nothing is outside of his control.  Now this passage is not setting on that phrase, but this morning it stopped me. Everything is under His control. It's a fact I know, but do I live like I know it?  As I focus on "thankfulness" this year I find myself thanking God a lot more, but also as I turn my heart toward seeing what He has done, I see more and more that what I ask Him for is many time nothing compared to what He is capable of. It has been challenging me to pray bigger prayers, like for the baby I saw in the NICU yesterday that God would heal her, for the car salesmen that He would come to really know and honor God. For myself when I need Him to quite my growling tummy during surgery, or to relieve the worry, or work out the student loans, or help Paul have an awesome day at golf. I find the more I am thankful, the more I in turn am learning to give more and more to God.  The more I am willing to understand that everything really is under His control.

And sometimes I need to repent of my lack of belief that everything is under His control, because when I don't' believe it with every fiber of my being I worry, as though I have some sort of control as to how the events happen. As if "because I want it and I will" it will happen. Friends, we have to put our whole lives in Gods hands and ask for His will alone, not ours, and when you struggle to be able to do that, I encourage you to pray and ask Him for the strength. Thank Him for the ways He has shown you so far that you can trust Him, and ask Him to forgive you for the times that you don't, and to grow your faith.

Francis Chan spoke in session 4 of the passion conference and he talked a lot about trusting God, and understanding that so often it feels like we can't trust anyone, but to remember that we can trust God. While these points of trust, and faith, and knowing He is in control seem like they should come easy, they seem to come hard in a world where we see a consistent pattern that says we can't trust others. The bible even tells us we can't trust our own hearts as they are deceitful. So what can we trust? God. We can trust the promises that He gives, and friends something I want to echo that Francis Chan pointed out: it's not just the warm and fuzzy promises but all of His promises. His promise to oppose the proud, and give grace to the humble. His promise to deny you if you deny Him. His promise that many will cry Lord Lord and He will say He never knew them.  We never want to talk about some of these promises we wanna focus on the promise that says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, that if God is for us who can be against us, that He will never leave or forsake us but friends, they are all His promises. The easy to hear, and the hard truth, all are promises from the word of God and as such we should hide them in our hearts.

Please let me know how I can be praying for you. Are you struggling with this idea of trust? Do you have a hard time remember that He has everything in control? I want to be honest and tell you I do. I struggle with this and I'm praying that God will forgive me, and grow in me a new understanding of trust as He designed it. Friends I pray that for you to, and if you need anything else please let me know.  Do know that I don't have any magical connection to God in prayer that you don't have, sometimes it is just nice to know that someone else is praying for you and that is all I hope to offer.

Trust Him. Know that he has everything under His control.