Hills and Valleys - Never Ending Battle Over Ourself

In Deuteronomy 34:1-4, Moses climbs Mt. Nebo. At the top, God shows him the promise land but says, "I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it."

We all have a Mt.​ NEBO ​​in our lives: a ​Ne​​ ver-​E​​nding ​B​​attle over ​O​​urselves. We think that whatever happens in our lives ​must b​ e God's will, not realizing that our own decisions can, and frequently do, interfere with God's will for our life. Thus, we are always in a battle where we try to put our own will above God's. Then, when things don't go our way we are quick to blame God for the bad in our lives. We don't realize that the reason things turned out that way was ​because we were fighting God's will in the first place.

Relinquishing control over our lives can be scary. Like the Israelites who doubted God, the fear of failure can be so terrifying that we opt for the comfort of slavery instead of trusting God to free us. God doesn't ​just​ want to free us, though. God has great plans for our lives but we need to trust him​ ALL the way​ ​​if we want His promises for our lives to be fulfilled. Moses didn't bring the Israelites out of Egypt for them to die in the wilderness; he believed in God's promises and we need to too! However, Moses broke faith with God and, as a result, though God showed him the promise-land, God did not let him enter into it.

Giving God control is not about choosing what area of life—or how much of one area—you're going to give him. Choosing to hold back a part of your life is still you maintaining control over your life. God ​wants​ to release his will into our lives—if only we let him. We always want to do things our way because it's more comfortable but God is close to those who trust him and when you do, you realize that He is the ultimate source of comfort. We forget that when we partially obey him, we partially disobey him as well. That disobedience gets in the way of His will and prevents us from entering our own promise-land, like it did with Moses.

Jesus was constantly checking in with God to make sure that God's will was being done—not his human one. The Lord's prayer even says, "​THY will be done."​ Giving God control so that His will can be released into our lives isn't easy, but God is always one prayer away.