God IS in Control-->Let Him be!

Lately I've spent a lot of time thinking about how good habits can quickly begin to consume our thoughts and pull our trust away from our heavenly father.

As a liver transplant recipient I take medications that purposely lower my immune system in order to keep my body from attacking this 'foreign object' that I cannot live without.   Because of my lower immune system, viruses and bacteria are a real threat.  I was given a liver transplant handbook with all these things that I need to do to avoid getting sick:  don't garden for the first year, don't drink water unless it is treated with chlorine, avoid large crowds, don't be around people who are sick, disinfect shopping carts, always carry hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes, wash your hands 50 thousand times a day, etc, etc, etc...So a few months after my transplant I go to the grocery store and have the sinking realization halfway through my trip that I forgot to disinfect my shopping cart.  Of course everyone knows that shopping carts are one of the most germy things you can possibly touch.  Oh now I've done it, I thought, I'm probably going to contract some horrible illness like the common cold and I'll be dead in a week because I didn't do what I was supposed to do...  I had been trusting in myself for my life and health rather than trusting in God.  My fears which drive my actions and reactions in this area are something I am working through.  Yes, the statistics that the doctors gave for survival after transplant are scary to think about, but I have to remember that my God is in control of my life, not me and my sanitizing or some dooming statistic.

 The verse in Matthew 6 comes to mind about not being anxious for how is worry going to even add a second to our lives. I think we are all guilty sometimes of controlling things out of an anxious heart like dieting, exercise, cleanliness (ie. disinfecting and killing germs)  as if our life and health depends upon everything we do. These things are all good things, but in the end, the Lord is in control. He has a marvelous plan for us, and He knows what illnesses we will experience, and when we will be born and when we will die. Yes, It is important to take care of our 'temple' by eating healthy, staying fit and having good hygiene, but not to the extent that we are trusting in these things for our health and life instead of God.  Our lives our in his hands!  Praise God, for only he is worthy to have such control!

Colossians 1:17b In Him all things consist.

Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things!  To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Psalm 139:13-18a  For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the some of them, they would outnumber the grains of the sand. 

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give  you hope and a future.

Proverbs 19:21  Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

Matthew 6:27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,  but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart  and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.