How to Release Control to God

This devotional is part of a post on my cabinet painting reveal: Before and After Cabinet Photos

For every DIY project, no matter if it is cabinet painting or spray painting door knobs I’m a habitual planner.  I think it’s my way of trying to prevent unwanted surprises in life.  I assume that if I can plan it, then I can control it.  But unfortunately, that’s just not the way this world works.

Fortunately, God gives us a backup plan when something thwarts even our most well-intentioned plans.  So what’s our backup parachute for when life is unraveling before us?  It’s simply communicating with Him.

Yes, it’s just that simple.  Through giving our burdens to Him in prayer, He is faithful to bless and strengthen us in any situation we encounter no matter how large or small. 

Only through prayer can we see disappointments as opportunities for good, helping us to be joyful even in the hardest of circumstances.

I don’t know about you but I can be great at communicating with God one day but completely fail to engage with him the next. 

God realizes that we are only human and that our environment is rigged to distract us from Him.

So regardless of how easily distracted we have been in the past, He loves it when we come back to Him with our problems, big and small.  

Learning to communicate with Him is a discipline and it’s not something we learn overnight.  But the more we do it, the more our eyes are opened up to how He is using those struggles for His good which is ultimately for our good.

The practice of going to Him in prayer takes the sting out of life’s hardships

Going to Him in prayer helps you to reframe setbacks as opportunities allowing you to gain so much more than you have lost.  More than anything, prayer develops our relationship with Him and helps us to guard our hearts against things that will only discourage us further.

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3

God might not fix all of our current problems but He does something better.  He uses those circumstances to transform us so that after He has brought us through them, we are better equipped by His strength to handle the future with confidence.

Fortunately, God gives us a backup plan when something thwarts even our most well-intentioned plans.  So what’s our backup parachute for when life is unraveling before us?  It’s simply communicating with Him.

Yes, it’s just that simple.  Through giving our burdens to Him in prayer, He is faithful to bless and strengthen us in any situation we encounter no matter how large or small. 

Only through prayer can we see disappointments as opportunities for good, helping us to be joyful even in the hardest of circumstances.

I don’t know about you but I can be great at communicating with God one day but completely fail to engage with him the next. 

God realizes that we are only human and that our environment is rigged to distract us from Him.

So, regardless of how easily distracted we have been in the past, He loves it when we come back to Him with our problems, big and small.  

Learning to communicate with Him is a discipline and it’s not something we learn overnight.  But the more we do it, the more our eyes are opened up to how He is using those struggles for His good which is ultimately for our good.

The practice of going to Him in prayer takes the sting out of life’s hardships

Going to Him in prayer helps you to reframe setbacks as opportunities allowing you to gain so much more than you have lost.  More than anything, prayer develops our relationship with Him and helps us to guard our hearts against things that will only discourage us further.

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3

God might not fix all of our current problems but He does something better.  He uses those circumstances to transform us so that after He has brought us through them, we are better equipped by His strength to handle the future with confidence.

RELATED: How to Give Your Burdens Over To God (And Why You Aren’t Meant to Carry Them Anyway!)