If I have to be straight with you here, life can be pretty sucky at times. People aren’t always nice, things don’t always go well, and on some days, physically pushing ourselves to face another day of what we call ‘life’ can be a straight-up mission. Sometimes the stress piles up and thing after thing comes crashing around us. The list of things we have to do and have to face increases and all we want to do is to run away and escape to one of the Greek islands in Mamma Mia and curl up in a little ball somewhere away from everything and eat icecream.

And I can betcha that I’m not the only girl out there who sometimes finds the idea of running away a lot more comforting than actually running into the arms of our Creator. There are days when I completely forget that it is to our Maker that I should run towards — and there are days I totally forget that I have an opportunity to do life with the One who breathed life into me. There are so many days where I actually do forget that my life is filled to the brim with endless possibilities for healing, joy and security in Him.

For a while, I thought I had this whole ‘God’ thing sussed out. I thought I was the absolute bomb at going straight to God when I was struggling and that I was not the girl who ran away from Him when life hit me hard. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

For me, it was so much easier to claim that I ran straight to God when the challenges weren’t deep or there weren’t multiple things piling on top of me. In fact, I could easily claim to be a pro at running into the arms of God. But, the fact of the matter was, I wasn’t actually amazing at going straight to God for every single challenge in my life. For a while, I wondered to myself why that was. Why was it that in some moments in life it was easy to go to God, while in others, all I wanted to do was run to everything but Him?

Click the image below to grab your FREE devotional on How to Trust God in Hard Times! Download it now!

If we really begin thinking about it, there is no denying how much easier it is to do the whole Proverbs 3:5 ‘trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding’ thing when your life is near-smooth sailing. After all, giving up control to God is so much easier when He is running your life the way you desire Him to or when you’re met with challenges that don’t really require too much out of you. So our lives become a whole lot more like… “Imma gonna run to you go — so long as you’re not asking too much out of me” or “Okay yep! I’ll come to you with my troubles Lord, as long as you sort things out in the ‘right’ way”. But the moment the truly tough comes our way, genuinely letting go and letting God take control of our lives becomes all the more difficult.

—> You might also like: 5 Biblical Truths for Trusting God in Hard Times (Prayers to Speak)

The Real Reason Why Letting Go and Letting God Take Control is Hard

The real reason why letting go and letting God take control is actually so simple. But it is one that doesn’t necessarily immediately cross people’s minds in the first instance.

Oftentimes the concept of ‘not enough faith or trust’ is promoted as the core reason why we find it hard to let God take control of our lives and the main culprit of why we sometimes choose to run away from God instead of to Him. But why does the concept of ‘not enough faith or trust’ even exist in the first place?

Well, the real reason why letting go and letting God take control can be difficult is because we don’t fully know the character of God… We can trust God when times are tough — but only up to a point. We run towards God when things are hard — but only up to a point.

It is so incredibly easy to think that we trust God in all things and run towards Him in all things, but the moment our frightened, naked core is laid bare or we are faced with a challenge that requires more than we are comfortable to give, it becomes so clear that we don’t actually fully trust in the character of who He says He is.

If we truly believed that God was good, and believed from the bottom of our hearts that the character of God was selfless and had our best interests, why would we not be giving up control to this God all the time? Why wouldn’t we always run towards Him for safety and help if we could claim that we really knew Him? And why wouldn’t we be letting go and letting God take control if we actually, truly knew and believed in who He said He was?

B.O.O.M.

Really coming to terms with the idea that no, I did not indeed fully know nor trust in the character of God was so freeing. It convicted me in all the right ways and brought me to the foot of the cross with my head hung low. It made me realise how much I needed His help to help me on this journey of allowing God to take control of my life.

Brief Overview of Who Scripture Says God is…

• Even if you face trials and hardships, He always provides a way (1 Corinthians 10:13)
• God is light and there is not a speck of darkness in Him. (1 John 1:5)
• The Lord always keeps His promises and He never lies. (2 Peter 3:9) and (Number 23:19)
• He loves you beyond all measure and He is the definition of love itself. (John 3:16) and (Matthew 6:26) and (1 John 4:7-9)
• God is unchangeable and every good and perfect gift comes from Him. (James 1:17)
• The Lord is gracious and righteous and full of compassion. (Psalm 116:5) and (Psalm 50:6) and (2 Chronicles 30:9) and (Exodus 34:5-7)
• He is perfect and protects all who take refuge in Him. (Psalm 18:30)

Click the image below to grab your FREE devotional on How to Trust God in Hard Times! Download it now!

How to Let God Take Control of Your Life (and Avoid Running Away)

#1 Learning to Recognize You Will NEVER Know Him Fully, But Choosing to Grow Deeper in Your Relationship with Him Anyway

Let’s be honest here. Neither you nor I will ever truly know who God is. If either you or I actually fully knew who He was, then He wouldn’t be God. His very being is far beyond our humanly comprehension, so how could we ever truly understand His full and complete character? I mean, if you could be best friends with someone your whole life — or married to someone for the rest of your life, it would still be impossible to claim that you knew absolutely every single thing about them! There would still be moments of surprises where we learned something new — and with God being an infinite being, how could we ever know His character fully?

But this doesn’t mean that the journey of letting go and letting God take control of our lives is an impossible one. It just means it is a journey with Him that has no end, but with each step, you see more and more of the beauty surrounding the path you’re journeying along! Like all close relationships that we have in our lives, when we intentionally begin investing more in our relationship with Him by spending more time with Him, our relationship with Him grows more intimate. And as a result, our understanding (and as a consequence our trust) in Him deepens.

The way each and every one of us grows in a deeper relationship with our Maker won’t look exactly the same. But some of the best ways to actually get to know God for who He is? Read about it from the Words breathed by Him and spend time in conversations with Him.

—> You might also like: 5 Daily Creative Quiet Time Ideas with God

#2 Identify the Strongholds in Your Life that are Causing You to Stumble and in Faith, Bring Them Straight to God

Every s.i.n.g.l.e. one of us has strongholds in our lives. And these are the things that hold such a heavy influence over our lives. These are the things that hold us by the ankles, tripping us up when we aren’t holding God by His hands. These are the things that we hate talking about with other people because our heads keep hanging down in shame. And these are the things that we cry over a tub of ice cream when we feel like there is no way out.

Click the image below to grab your FREE devotional on How to Trust God in Hard Times! Download it now!

If you’re anything like me, you’ll hate dwelling in those negative emotions. In fact, it is something you try to avoid. You avoid it because you are afraid of the hurt that will come from truly thinking about it all. You run away from dealing with it and avoid bringing it to the foot of the cross because you are scared of what might happen. But identifying those strongholds in your life and bringing them straight to our Maker is healing. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It won’t necessarily be the type of healing that is soothing — in fact it can straight-up cause you pain. Sometimes it can be like putting Dettol (or some other disinfectant) on an open wound.

But when we know the character of our Creator, hanging our heads low and allowing God to take control of our lives means that we can actually rest in His promises and just know that they will be fulfilled. We can begin to believe that they aren’t like the empty promises that so many others have made to us, but that they hold substance and exist to be made true.

#3 Destroy Pride and Fully Acknowledge and Admit that Something Needs to Change

You know our main man Paul really speaks for all of us when he says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15).

We’re always more focused on being in right relationship with our Maker when we recognize that we frequently fall off it! But sometimes we don’t even notice when we are running away and oftentimes, we don’t even recognize the spiritual pride that creeps up on us — especially those of us who have been ‘Christians’ for a while. However, when we fully recognize the fact that it is actually within our nature to run away and within our nature to be too prideful to even recognize the truth of why we run away, it makes us realize exactly how much we need Him.

It is time to say no to lukewarm Christianity. And it is time to say no to living on top of this lofty spiritual spot because then we can really begin the healing process. When we start fully admitting to the reasons why we’re running away and struggle with giving up control to God, it will bring forth so much light to areas in our lives that was once cloaked in darkness.

—> You might also like: Jesus Didn’t Die for You to Be Ashamed | Signs of a Lukewarm Christian & What You Can Do About It

#4 Seeking Wise Counsel and Find Accountability… Even When You Feel too Ashamed

One of the most common ways the enemy likes to prevent us from giving up control over to God is by keeping us isolated from others. Have ya ever noticed that sometimes when things just got you down, all you want to do is hide away in a corner somewhere and shut off from everyone and everything? Like seriously, give me that tub of ice cream and give me that plane ticket to Greece and I would probably hop on that plane and fly away!

But when we are far away from wise counsel, it is so much easier for negative thoughts and thoughts that don’t come from our Maker to penetrate our minds. —> You might also like this blog post: How to Overcome Negative Thoughts and Keep Them Captive! (+ FREE thoughts journal!)

Keeping accountability is one of the most encouraging ways we can take to grow in our journey of letting go of control to God. This is because when the people around us who love us and know us start noticing us trying to take control of our own lives, they can act as Godly counsel. They will be able to be the physical presence here on earth that gently encourages and convicts us to seek God first. So regardless of what stage of life you’re in, regular accountability is so crucial!

NOTE: But with all things, it is so important that you ask God Himself for discernment over what is spoken to you and over you.

So What Does this All Mean?

At the end of this all, I hope that you will be able to continue finding joy in the every day by going on this adventure with Christ. Don’t stop taking His hand and dancing with Him every morning. Life is more than just running towards Him when it is easy to. It is meant to be led and adventured with the One who knows us like the back of His hand — even in the moments when it feels like it is safer to hide from Him. Life is meant for finding joy in going on this journey to truly know who our Creator is and letting Him know that you enjoy the place He has placed you in the present.

In this life, I have no idea what to expect. But in this life you will face struggles, scars from the past come to haunt you, witness and experience heartbreak, face death and sickness and feel incredibly lonely and rejected. So it shouldn’t be surprising that you won’t be able to get through your every day with a radiating joy without the strength of the Lord. And you certainly will not be able to live out each day with a genuine desire to want to shuffle your feet and dance with the Lord without acknowledging that you need Him to help you to want Him.

Begin admitting all the reasons why you’ve been pushing Him away and start acknowledging all the ways you can begin living each day dancing with Him, following His lead wherever that may be. Start gliding with Him through each and every trial with authenticity and humility. I don’t know about you, but I want to dance our Creator and form a deep and meaningful relationship with the One who put the twinkle in the stars and painted the sky every shade we see. <3

Click the image below to grab your FREE devotional on How to Trust God in Hard Times! Download it now!

Hey! Here Are Other Resources…

—> CLICK THE LINK TO READ … 5 Biblical Truths for Finding God in Hard Times (& Prayers to Speak)

—> CLICK THE LINK TO READ … How to Find God’s Calling for Your Life

—> CLICK THE LINK TO READ … How to Find Your Identity in Christ

or browse the blog HERE!

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Before You Go…

Hope ya enjoyed this lil’ blog post on the real reason why letting go and trusting God. Really learning how to let God take control of your life can be hard, but drop a comment below and let me know — do you struggle with allowing God to take control of your life?

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