Our Effective Control
The Awakening
As she sits on her ‘have-to-have-it’ couch she thinks back to when there were no choices to make. As a child she was told what to do and as a teenager she fought to make choices of her own. She had no idea at the time what a mess she will make with that right. Then, when she became an adult Leola made too many wrong choices. Too many choices with her time and too many ungodly choices with her morals. The result of that is she has too much furniture, gadgets, clothes, food, body fat, shoes and worse, flimsy morals. Leola just has too much of everything except money and godly morals. How did she get so out of control? Loela was not watching her future nor was she controlling her current wants. She has in effect lost control of herself.
Leola has seen the word ‘sober’ in the bible! It always brought to mind alcohol but she is getting a good picture of what sober means outside of drinking. She wonders if there is much of a difference between what she has been doing with her life and what someone who is drunk all the time is doing. They make impulsive decisions weighing the cost later when they are sober yet is that any different than what she is doing? Are either one of us clear-headed when we are sober? She is recklessly spending her life on useless things meant for instant gratification. She knows it isn’t going to last because she will soon be bankrupt. Her husband, Sam, is frustrated with her spending. As long as Sam stays in the dark about all the purchases and donations he will never voice his frustrations and she is off the hook. Leola has become accustomed to deceiving her husband. She isn’t seeing how ineffective she is at this deception; she is sound asleep.
Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6). We need to make sure we do not fall asleep while we are living our life for Jesus. We have a roaring lion following us around whose goal it is too make us ineffective in the Body of Christ and in the world. Our effectiveness depends on our own self-control. This is something we need to learn over time. Self-control doesn’t just show up overnight, it is learned. It takes a little self-control to gain a lot of self-control. The issue with lack of control is it engulfs our whole life and our whole being. If we lose control in one area I am pretty sure we have lost control in many other areas. Let’s think about alcohol for a minute. Someone who drinks to excess has lost control of the alcohol but what has he lost control of before the drink. The area God will go after to get control over is what is causing our life to be ineffective right now. Once we are effective at controlling that other areas to control will show up.
The Conviction
One more lie won’t change anything except Leola. God has had enough of the deception. She has lost control of the truth! God ordained her to teach women life skills but how will she be able to be of any effect to them when lying has become her norm instead of the truth. She is extremely grieved by her behaviour. She looked around the room to see all the money she has spent on frivolous stuff. Sam was right! It is time to clean this mess up. Leola would embark on a two year quest to get rid of the frivolous stuff everywhere in the house and control her spending. The first thing she had to do was stop lying to her husband. Leola has asked the Holy Spirit to convict her on this because it has become so habitual she won’t catch it fast enough before the dirty deed is done. Since Sam is not saved yet, his only view of Jesus is her. She is determined to be a good effect on him and anyone else she teaches!
It takes a long time to clean up a mess that was years in the making. When we lose control it effects our whole life as well as the people around us. Discord is the mainstay with loss of control but we don’t first try to fix it, we attempt to hide it, making everything worse. Paul wants us to watch and be sober about our life because our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back and we do not want to be caught in the middle of dishonouring Him when the trumpet blows. Fear not because you can do this! God has chosen us, equipped us and set us to His work that we would be effective to all, honouring Him.
This weeks meditation verses: 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Peter 5:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:7
