Let Go of Control

Conviction and revelation are His job. Not mine.

That’s a hard thing to actually live, even when you know it in your head. So I wrote myself a short list of what not to waste my time on:

• Control
• Arguing
• Pushing people
• Changing people

Because here’s the truth underneath all of it: everyone has free will. God gave it to them, and He doesn’t override it. So why do I keep trying to?

If revelation is His job, then my job is something else entirely. So I asked myself — what will I do?

• Bring your children to church so they can hear the Word.
• Teach them the real gospel — not traditions dressed up as truth.
• Trust God and His Word.
• Live a happy life.

That last one almost feels too simple to write down next to the others. But I think that’s the point. A lot of the weight I carry isn’t actually mine to carry. Once I let go of control, there’s room left over — for peace, for the Word to do what only it can do, for an actual happy life instead of one spent gripping the steering wheel of other people’s hearts.

Let go of control. Find peace in the Word.

There’s a practical side to this too — maybe the hardest side.

When someone close to you, someone you love, is struggling — whether it’s a reaction out of old trauma, or simply them acting from their own understanding and not yours — don’t be disappointed in them.

Instead:

• Have patience.
• Understand them.
• Don’t try to change them.
• Be genuinely loving and understanding.
• And just pray for them.

I think this is what it actually looks like to live out the first part. It’s easy to say “conviction is God’s job” as a principle. It’s much harder when it’s someone you love sitting right in front of you, hurting or pushing back, and every instinct in you wants to fix it, argue it straight, or push them toward the answer you can already see.

But that’s not your job. It never was.

Your job is to love them. Pray for them. And trust that the same God who’s patient with you is patient with them too.