I Give Up Control

Ash Wednesday, Lent Devotional Series

Guest Post by: Jon Baldwin, Broadway United Methodist Church

Psalm 46:10 

Let go of your concerns! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations. I rule the earth.

There are times in our lives when our best intentions to help others result in unknowing attempts to control their behavior. This is especially true of a parent /child or a spouse/spouse relationship.

We often think we know better, and sometimes that is absolutely true. But unwelcome advice, lectures, demands, or other attempts at “helping” cause only resistance when someone doesn’t want our “help.” Even when our “help” is sometimes accepted, the wrong kind of help becomes enabling of negative behaviors.

Letting go and giving control to God allows us to let others live out their own relationship with God however they choose to do so. Letting go requires faith on our part that God cares and can take care of the situations of our lives and of those we love. It allows our loved ones the chance to live into what their lives were meant to be.

When we give up control we are freed to experience some peace and serenity in our lives. People around the world often recite the “Serenity Prayer” but don’t read the last eight lines…


God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen. (Niebuhr)