The Illusion of Control
The illusion of control is one of the biggest hindrances to our ministries today. We spend our time seeking numbers to tell us what group of people to go after or to let us know exactly when we should do this or teach that.
It is the hope of all men to be in control of their destinies, but God says tomorrow is not promised to us. It is the desire of all men to be in control of their lives on a day-to-day basis, but God says to submit and He will bless you with the desires of your heart. The reality is control is but an illusion for mankind as there is but one who has control and His name is Yaweh.
The Sadducees and Pharisees suffered from this same delusion. They spent their lives trying to prove the teachings of Jesus wrong because it meant they had to let go of control and the things they had been teaching and accept the fact that there was no control. They held onto control so hard that it cost Jesus His life.
It has occurred to me that this is why people fear change so much. It is not that they never want anything to change, it is simply they do not want to let go of their illusion of control. In order to let go of control they have to admit the reality of their lives and face the fact that they are sinners. This scares people so bad that they are willing to put the Son of God on a cross and spit on Him so they will not have to admit what they already know deep in their hearts, they are not in control.
Control is nothing more than a defense we have set in place in order to stop people from seeing the pain we are in, because if we allow them to see our pain we may become vulnerable and in order to do that we must take a chance on getting hurt one more time. This is a chance most people are not willing to take because they are so focused on self that no one else truly matters. Thus they continue in the illusion that they have some power and control over their lives and over the people around them and in so doing continue to hurt themselves and everyone around them.
Control is but a wall for people to hide behind so they do not have to show the world just how scared they are and just how bad they truly feel about themselves. In achieving this they also hide these things from themselves. This allows them to begin to lie to themselves which in turns allows them to start to lie to God. This gets them into a state of turning from God and seeking relief in other ways such as work or drugs, or T.V. ect…
Control is but an illusion that allows a person to fool themselves and others into thinking they are more powerful than they actually are.