January 2013
Women’s Ministry FUMC Berkeley Springs, WV
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Jesus, Take the Wheel! “Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life…Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.” —Ephesians 4:22-23 It’s the new year—a time to throw off the old sweet-eating, holidaybuffet-cheating of the last few months and join the crowds at the New Year’s resolution station. Have you made yours yet? Keeping those resolutions is as simple (or not so simple) as controlling our choices, and we have a lot of them to make every day. Some are easy, with small consequences, like which socks to wear. Others are more complex and can have larger consequences, like what we say and do. Making choices, in other words, is about self-control, which is defined as “control of one’s emotions, desires, or actions by one’s own will.” Controlled by one’s own will. But what happens when that self-led control of our choices leads to out-of-control? When we find ourselves giving in to temptations that are not healthy, saying or doing things we know are wrong, or losing our cool much too easily? When our control starts to veer us off course, out-of-control takes over, and pretty soon we realize we are heading for a crash. Sliding sideways down a slippery slope is a logical time to call out: “Jesus, take the wheel!” But what if we’re driving through life on cruise control and don’t even realize we have drifted off course? It may take a long time before we lose total control, and it may not be all our little choices that make it happen. It could be the biggest choice we have to make—whether to be in relationship with God. In other words, who we choose to put in the driver’s seat of our lives every day, not just when the road gets rough. To work on making better choices this year, let Jesus take the wheel, and travel to resolution success!
THE WORD “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.…But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” —Galatians 5:16, 22-23
Think About It “Don’t give up what you most want in life for something you think you want now.” —Richard G. Scott What would be on your “want now” and “want most” lists? Are there important things you have given up for something you wanted now?