HOW CAN I SURVIVE IN A WORLD THAT’S OUT OF CONTROL?

SCRIPTURE:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power 
through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your 
hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established 
in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide 
and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. 
(Ephesians 3:16-18)

MEDITATION:
Social analysts tell us that our society is sick. 
We have seen attempts to heal our society through low-income housing, 
welfare payments, radical changes in education, restructuring of taxes to 
punish the successful and reward those who have no desire to contribute, etc.

But we have seen that social engineering is not the answer for a sick society.
People continue to rob, steal, murder and lie; decadent groups still torture
and kill those who do not succumb to their form of worship; national debt
continues to rise; poverty has not been eradicated; government corruption is
increasing and those with honesty and integrity are ridiculed for their 
faith and beliefs.

There is no doubt that the world does need changing, society needs changing, the 
nation needs changing, but nothing is going to change 
until we ourselves are changed. 
And we never will change until we look at ourselves honestly 
and admit who we are inside.
We can cleverly disguise our ‘real self’ to others in many ways, 
and sometimes we are so good at it that we convince ourselves we are the 
disguised person, and not the real person behind the outward image we project.

In order for our society to be healed, every individual needs 
to develop a personal relationship with the Lord (including Christians).
We will never fully understand the magnitude of His love 
unless we get closer to Him.
And we will never get closer to Him unless we read His Word daily, 
pray daily, and meet with other believers on a regular basis 
to praise and worship the Lord.

Being saved is the beginning of a relationship with the Lord 
that needs to be nourished and fed every day.
That means we should expect to be 
in a fluid state of being changed by the Lord.

Whenever we become complacent and fail to increase our fellowship with the 
Lord, that’s when we can expect ‘self’ to rise up and seize more control 
of our lives.
And when that happens, we not only stop feeding our relationship with the 
Lord, but we damage the one we have created thus far.

Since Paul was not with the Ephesians physically, in his letter he prayed 
that they would be strengthened by the Lord “in their inner being”.
Paul challenged them 
to honestly assess their inner selves to see who was in control.

He explained the need of God’s Spirit as a requirement 
for opening the door for Christ to dwell in their hearts.
He told them that when Christ “dwelled in their hearts”, 
they would be able to grasp the magnitude of His love.

ACTION:
Who are you right now?
The question is not who do your pretend to be, but who are you?
Who is the real person that lives behind the one projected to others?
Do you have a desire to live in a close relationship with the Lord?
It is not going to happen without some effort on your part.

You know what changes you need to make to eliminate self, 
and welcome the control of the Holy Spirit into your life.
Stop rationalizing your actions, stop procrastinating what you know you 
want to do, and make your commitment today.
God wants to bless you, 
but you have to invite His Spirit into your life – totally.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, for too long I have allowed my selfish desires to 
control me and failed to invite Your Spirit to live within me. When I 
see how Paul tried to emphasize to the Ephesians the importance of 
allowing Your Spirit to strengthen and give them the ability to experience 
Your love, I realize my own pride and selfishness. Forgive me for 
where I have been, and help me in my efforts to get to where I really 
want to be. I might be able to disguise myself to others, but You know 
the real me and the changes I need to make, to have a closer relationship 
with You and fully experience Your love in my life. Thank You in 
advance for the new life I can look forward to enjoying in fellowship 
with Your Spirit.”