Are You Holding On Too Tight?

Have you received news that seems devastating to you or your family? Are you struggling to hang on with everything that is in you to not lose your grip? Perhaps you are hanging on too tightly!

Psalm 46 starts off by informing us that God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. Even when there are earthquakes that cause mountains to crumble into the sea and the ocean roars and waves seem to overwhelm us, He is there.

We like to think we are in control of our situations, but we are not. There are things we can do to be attentive to these situations, things we can do that are right and morally correct, but we cannot control all that other influences have over our circumstances.

When an event occurs that suddenly throws us into panic and fear, when chaos seems to overwhelm us, we tend to apply a death grip to the situation. Think about something simple such as a scenario like this; You are driving along and suddenly a car changes direction to swerve towards you. You instinctively grip the steering wheel harder so you can control your cars change of direction.

Or worse, you receive a call from the physician informing you that there is cancer growing inside of you. As those words seep into your consciousness, a realization begins to set in that you have decisions to make that will affect not only you but your family. You have choices to make but someone else is directing your steps. We are trying to control our situation with a strong grip on what we perceive we can hold on to not knowing what the future has in store for us.

Verse 10 of Psalm 46 says; Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth. He is in control, not us.

Picture this; a small child or toddler is suddenly frightened by something. The first thing they do is grab hold of the one they trust most to protect them at that moment. They hold on so tightly and cry so strongly that they exhaust themselves. It is when they finally realize they are safe in the arms of mama, or grammy, that they relax their grip, and many will fall asleep safe in the arms of their protector. (This is the super power that women have. The nurturer quality that God placed in them is what children are drawn to instinctively.)

It could be that you need to realize that God is your refuge and strength, your very ready help. Verse 11 says that the LORD of armies is with us. The solution you need is to do like the child I just described does. Crawl into the lap of your heavenly Father, trust Him and relax your grip. He has the answers and He is your help.