Surrender!

Ecclesiastes 8

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, November 24.

There is much in life that you and I cannot control. How does that make you feel? The problem is, if you refuse to believe this, you will seek to be powerful in an all-consuming effort to protect yourself from that which you perceive threatens you, or those you love. You will do what is right in your own eyes, and, eventually, all your effort will be in vain, a chasing after the wind. The Preacher knew this human predicament, explaining in Ecclesiastes 8:6-8:

For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man’s trouble is heavy upon him. If no one knows what will happen, who can tell him when it will happen? No man has authority to restrain the wind with the wind, or authority over the day of death; and there is no discharge in the time of war, and evil will not deliver those who practice it.

There is a remedy, and, surprisingly, it is not trying harder to be in control. It’s surrendering all to a God who is Sovereign, who knows all your tomorrows. James 4:13-16 explains how we should approach each day:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

The more success you experience by your own strength, the more enslaved you become to your own frailty. This run-around will fail you in the end, as we all must face death one day.

Seize the moment and surrender your lack of control by choosing to trust God in all circumstances!

God bless you!

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YOUTUBE:

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