Control Freak (Part 2) - Separating is Hard.

Deuteronomy 6:10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

We also must remember whose we are and how we got here. If we are honest, I believe we can all track back to a time in our past where we were enslaved to one degree or another in our lives. Most of us, over time, tend to find ourselves in better circumstances than we were say ten years ago. We may look back on those times as a form of slavery. We were bound to a set of circumstances that limited our freedom. So, we worked hard and now find ourselves out of the set of limiting circumstances (and possibly in new more opressive ones -- but that is another posting). We now have things that we did not have before. We “connect the dots” and conclude that we got these things because we worked hard. The truth is that you were supernaturally delivered out of a set of circumstances that you could have never climbed out of and into a set of circumstances that you could not have attained on your best day. And what does God want in return? Not to be forgotten. What a strange thing to ask for. How could we forget Him who delivered us from the hopeless circumstances? How could we forget Him who blessed us with things that are beyond our abilities to acquire? The answer… we take credit. We take credit in thinking that our hard work delivered us from impossible odds. We take credit in thinking that our dedication and perseverance netted our material gain. But here are a few things to ponder. Do people who work hard, still end up in hopeless circumstances? Do people who are dedicated and who preserver still struggle to gain the necessary things of life? If hard work, dedication and perseverance were all that are needed to deliver one from hopeless circumstances into a life of milk and honey, then only those who are lazy would be poor and down trodden. As we all know, this is certainly not the case.

Next week: Control Freak (Part 3) – You Are a Fraud!