I am reminded today of who holds my world, and heals my soul when all in my world feels out of control. I offered this congregational prayer on Sunday, and the Holy Spirit keeps impressing the words on me this week:

 Heavenly father, we thank you that we can come here and worship you, you are so worthy of our praise and prayers, and we desire to give that to you this morning. You are the majestic one who created the Heaven and the Earth, you tell the sun when to rise and the moon when to set, you created the mountains and the valleys and all that fill them, including us, Lord. And you long to know us individually. Lord we come to you this morning, recognizing you are in control of all of those big things, but Lord, we confess, that often in the day to day pieces of our lives we feel out of control. Some of us are facing illness and medical concerns and we don’t know the future, we’re hurting with relationship issues and don’t know the next step, we’re dealing with job losses Lord, and we don’t know the outcome, we’re concerned with financial issues, and we feel small, we’re dealing with hurt and fear, feeling challenged and out of control. But God, we recognize that in all of these we can seek you, turn to you, and you will be there for us. Even as we wait for you to direct our paths, we will experience you and be surprised by your joy you bring in these situations. Help us Lord, to rest in you, to trust in you, to turn to you, to abide in you, and know that you are in control of all.

In the day to day living of my life I tend to make my world small, about me and how I’m feeling. Those feelings can shift like the wind, leaving me feeling out of control.

So many things each day are pulling for my attention. Work, finding time to write, caring for my children, making sure their homework is caught up, holding them when their own hurts surface, getting them to school & where they need to be, making time to get to the gym and taking care of myself, trying to reach out to friends and pray for their needs, fighting back my own loneliness, it all mounts up and can leave me feeling scattered, not good enough, and completely out of control.

But His love never fails. He never fails. He hasn’t left me. He has promised to be with us. To guide our paths, when we abide in Him. Rest in Him. Find joy in Him. And that’s just it… those day to day duties will always be there.   We have the choice to focus just on them and always recognizing our shortcomings that we will never be enough and never in complete control. OR we can recognize that when we trust in Jesus, He will lighten the burden, He will step in and meet our daily needs, He will always be more than enough and will always be in control. So I can keep my head down, in my own little world, feeling hopeless and lost, or I can choose to trust the King and live in His greater world, trusting that He is in control and redeeming my days and using them for His glory.

I think I’ll choose Him. I think I’ll choose the lighter burden. I think this day I’ll choose JOY.