When I was growing up, I lived on a small farm. We had all the farm animals, such as cows, hogs, chickens, and horses. The only animals we could control were the horses. The cows could be herded to a specific area, but there was no physical means of directing them to work. Horses were guided by reins. These long leather straps were fastened to a bit and placed in the horse’s mouth. A bridle fit over the horse’s head, and the reins were attached and controlled by the rider or a person pulling a plow. If you held the reins tight, a slight pull on either side of the horse would direct the horse to that side. If you wanted to go straight, you would hold them with equal tightness. This huge animal could be controlled by a strap of leather attached to a bit in the mouth. As long as you held the reins, you were in control, but if you let go of the reins, the horse was in charge.
When we become Christians, we are to let go of the reins and let God have control. So much of the time, we say He is in control, but we have not fully surrendered the reins. We loosen them in our hands, and when challenging situations arise, we pull tight on the reins and hold on. Why do we react this way when our head knowledge tells us that God loves us and will always do what is best for us? Why do we have difficulty fully trusting Him and letting go of the reins? We react this way because we do not know Him well enough to let Him have complete control. We fear He will direct us in a way we do not like. We fear the unknown. Fear and faith are opposite responses to a situation. The only way to overcome fear is to have faith.
Fear is not always a bad thing. God built this emotion within us to keep us from doing things that could be harmful to us. However, it is unhealthy when it paralyzes us and keeps us from stepping out in faith to follow God. Those who stay in their comfort zone never achieve much for the Lord. In the Bible, we are commanded to “fear not.” There are over 300 variations of this command.
In Matthew 1:20, Joseph was fearful when he was told that Mary would have a baby. I’m sure his first thought was that she had been unfaithful to him, yet he loved her deeply. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and the natural instinct was to be fearful and hurt. God sent an angel to speak to him in a dream, and she said, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” Joseph believed and allowed His belief and trust to guide Him, and a beautiful family resulted, including the Savior of the world.
In Luke 1:30-31, we see a similar situation to Mary’s. “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.” Both Joseph and Mary had a choice to make. They could believe God and follow His plan, or they could try to figure out a way to save face with family and friends who wouldn’t believe them and take matters into their own hands. They chose wisely to obey God. I believe neither of them fully understood the magnitude of what was about to happen, but they turned loose of the reins and allowed God to rule their lives.
We need to relinquish control of our lives. Like Mary and Joseph, we do not know the future, but we do know who is in control. You may say, “If an angel appeared to me as it did to them, of course I would believe.” Let me assure you that you have something greater than an angel; you have the word of God in your hands, and you have the Holy Spirit within you to guide and teach you. We know the beginning and the end of God’s plan. The only thing keeping us from letting go of the reins is our lack of trust in God. How do we increase our trust? We study and learn about God. We find out through His word how he reacts and responds to our needs. We look at the power He has exhibited in creation, in the resurrection, in miracles of healing, and in fighting and winning battles for His people. When we turn loose of the reins and give Him full control, we trust Him instead of ourselves. We live in a world where we are taught to be assertive and take control of our lives, but doing otherwise is categorized as weak. However, the strongest thing you will ever do is give up your control over your life. When we give Him control, we engage in a relationship. No longer is it just the knowledge we acquire by reading or hearing about Him, but our heart is engaged, and it becomes experiential knowledge. This is no different than how we build relationships with our spouses. We first know about them, which causes us to want to get to know them personally. We want to experience them, not just know facts about them.
God has given us innumerable promises, and none has ever failed. We must claim those promises for ourselves and as a testimony to others. When fear creeps in, we need to examine our fear against the word of God and trust Him. God told Joshua in Joshua 1:5 that He would never leave or fail him. In Act 10:34 we are taught that God does not have favorites, He treats us all the same. “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” We know that God is good and He is always good. We may not understand His ways, but we can trust Him and turn loose of the reins of our lives with an assurance and confidence that all will work for our good. The timing may not be what we want it to be, but when we fully trust Him, we can let go and have peace in our hearts. Our fear can turn to faith!
Joshua 1:5b “I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
