Turning Over The Keys

Turning Over the Keys

“For as many as are led by the Spirit

of God, these are the sons of God.”

                           Romans 8:14

In his popular book “tuesdays with Morrie”, Mitch Albom tells of the day when the main character, a college professor named Morrie battling the debilitating effects of ALS, turned over his car keys. No sooner had I read the words than my mind returned to my own parents and how vast;u different turning over the car keys was for each of them. On the one hand, you had my mother who one day, at the age of 94, made a decision that driving her car was no longer a good idea and not only handed over the keys but her car as well. My father was a whole different story. I can still remember him using a walker, having to be helped up and down steps and in so many other ways, yet in total seriousness asking me to take him to renew his drivers’ license. Needless to say his keys had to be taken away while he slept one night.

Turning over the keys can be likened to turning over control of our lives to the Lord. Some people quite easily find the faith to let go and trust God with their lives while others struggle, stuck in that place with head knowledge that God can be trusted but never actually able to give God complete control. Pastor Jim Cymbala said it this way, “Sadly, there are too many believers today who profess faith in Christ but who haven’t surrendered themselves to the control of the Spirit.” Surrendering control to God is a “not my will but yours be done Lord” mentality. Turning over control means admitting that only God knows what is truly best for our lives and includes our humbly acknowledging that if left to ourselves, we would make a mess of our lives.

Maybe another analogy from one of our two junk drawers would help. This particular one contains the spares sets of keys to each of our cars. Most of us reading this have given God some measure of control over our lives; we have certain areas of our lives that are yielded to Him, areas of behavior and speech limited by the constraints of right and wrong imprinted on our hearts by the Lord. But, then again, there is always that spare set of keys, the ones we pull out of the drawer when we want to do something that is selfish, that God would say no to if we dared to ask, and that are outside the boundaries of a committed, devoted, holy Christian life.

In encouraging each of us to turn over both sets of keys to the Lord, I do it with the certainty that our very best efforts to live a good life are as nothing compared  to the abundant life we can experience through a life fully surrendered to the Lord. It will take faith and trust greater than we have ever known but the result will be joy, peace, and contentment beyond our imagination.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church