Events That Control Us

Have you ever made a list of all the “events” that have some sort of control over you?  Crazy question, isn't it!  What a book some could write of ALL the events that have in one way or another exerted some sort of “control” over them…

So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. --Hosea 6:3

One day I talked to two different women who had suffered abuse. One had gotten on and was free; the other was still controlled by the past. Just so, many people suffer the same types of abuse and yet have different responses. Some, it seems, barely have a hiccup, while others are driven to a mental institution. The event cannot be the determining factor; rather, it is the significance placed on the event not only by the victims, of their own volition, but by society at large.Many are told that their particular hurt will involve years of pain and mourning before recovery. After highly publicized shootings at a high school, a mother of one of the students was told by a psychologist, “You can now expect your daughter to get into drugs, alcohol, and rebellion because of her trauma.” The mother wisely suspended her daughter's sessions with this “therapist.” Significance was attached to the event to the extent of presuming the young woman's descent into negative behavior. 

You have had hurts in your life such as rejection, disappointments, and failures. What significance do you attach to them? Legalists attach great significance to them, for their ministry is to keep people down. If you believe that a particular failure will determine the course of the rest of your life, we can be certain that major significance has been assigned to it.Is that in line with the significance that God attaches to it? Some believe that there can only be a good marriage where neither spouse has ever been raped or had an affair. At this point rape, for instance, is not just a one-time event, but is actually the stealing of a lifetime of happiness. Many will say, “But it is a fact! I was violated, cheated, and abused.” I am not saying there is not a temporarily huge struggle, but a momentary event is not to steal happiness forevermore. God will not change the fact, but He will change its significance. Invite Him into the event by asking to see Him at work in the midst of it. You will see, as many have, “God causes all things to work together for good!” The fact is still there, but it gives way to a greater fact: that God is "I AM." Many have come to discover Christ as life through mistakes, sin, failures, broken relationships, death, abuse, rejection, lost dreams, unemployment, dysfunctional marriage, and more. As long as we live from the Tree of Good and Evil, deciding for ourselves which of our life’s occurrences were good or bad, we will be divided. Live from the Tree of Life, and see Him in everything, 

Some things in life are so simple, yet so foreign to our way of thinking or even being aware of.  How many people do we know who have gone through the same type of event, yet some have “gotten on and are free,” while others are “still controlled by the past.”  Getting Past The Past…a great need for many.

Michael gives us two differing points of view to be aware of and make a decision which we will follow:

1. “the significance placed on the event not only by the victims, of their own volition, but by society at large.”

2. “the significance that God attaches to it.” (that same event)

Most interesting has to be: HOW MANY have really ever stopped to consider option #2?

Now notice two points that can change one’s life almost instantly:

1. a momentary event is not to steal happiness forevermore.

2. God will not change the fact, but He will change its significance.

Living from the Tree of Life, and seeing Him in everything, changes one’s life dramatically.

Mike Wells