By Joseph Perry

“Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” —Psalm 25:5

Did you know that God is still in control over every little thing in your life? I had to realized that at an early stage of my Christian experience. I had to get in my mind and heart that regardless of what happens in my life, from start to finish, the Lord is in control of it all. We need to know that we’re not out here alone; we have the Lord who never leaves us nor forsakes us, and He assures us that He is in control.

I’m sure there are people who will tell you that when they look at their life, it seems like the devil and or anybody who can is trying to ruin their life. It seems as though their life is out of control.

The Psalmist realized that God was there with him. He seemed to have understood that whatever he was experiencing, it may have been out of his control, but yet still in God’s control.

We need to let go and let God have it. Release yourself from trying to control it, and never let it control you. You’re trying to drive your life, you’re trying to steer your life, and every time you attempt to take matters in your own hands, you end up down a dead end road.

Sometimes, it is not until we get in a place where we can’t maneuver on our own ability that we recognize that it’s God who is in control over every moment of our lives. While He’s in control, He will teach us that this walk is in fact a faith walk. It’s a walk where we have to learn to trust him with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding. Our own understanding will sometimes mess us up. Our own understanding will have us going in a direction where we feel like it’s right. It may even look like it’s right. It will have us trying to figure life out and when we can’t figure out the tough equations of life, it will have us guessing through life. We don’t ever have to guess with God, because He knows our beginning and our ending. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. He teaches us that He is God. I really believe that we sometimes don’t really know who God is until we experience tough times in life from areas we thought we were in control, and when we get placed there again, the same thing that we had working for us, did not work.

Only then do we realize that God was in control. He’s sovereign, He knows exactly what to do in every event that goes on in our lives. He allows these events to occur to shape our lives for his purpose. He’s in control, and we must remember that nothing happens that He’s not aware of.

Life gets hard, so hard that it won’t make sense, but we have the God of all mankind whose ways are not like ours, nor are His thoughts like ours. He controls everything, and it’s through Him that everything exists.

Enjoy the journey that He has placed you. Cancel out the negatives and grab hold of the positives, knowing that God has total control over every issue in life.

The Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Perry is pastor of St. Mark AME Zion Church. Contact him at josephp134@gmail.com.