God’s In Control

No prayer of mine got me in the here and now,

No beseeching, no promise, no pleading, no vow;

I had no control over my arrival on this earth

And no determination of mine decided my birth.

I didn’t pray concerning the time of my sojourn,

That was ordered long before I was even born,

My days were numbered and in fact they still are

And like me is everyone whether he is here or from afar.

A thousand years are but a day in Thy sight, O Lord,

So stated the psalmist in Psalm ninety verse four,

It was noted again in second Peter three verse eight

So whenever we go it is neither too early nor too late.

History is already written in the annals of heaven

Concerning all who will be pardoned and who will be forgiven,

That fact is also true regarding all that will be lost

Even though they had a choice: their own way or the cross.

The Lamb’s Book of Life has already been decided,

The Triune God knows those who will and have abided,

The past, present and future are all the same to Him

For God already knows the end from the beginning.

There are those who often question God’s infallibility,

Pretending to be gods they display their own stupidity

For sooner or later they confront their own mortality

Which confirms to all that they are not God Almighty.

The Bible too is viewed with mounting suspicion

By critics and pundits and even some within Christendom;

Pulled down by atheists and promoters of evolution

Denouncing as a myth the Genesis account of creation.

The world mocks and scorns those who follow Christ

Declaring the same to be their cop-out mechanism device,

Afraid to the face up to the uncertain reality of the future

They create for themselves a godlike benevolent creature.

The truth be told this really applies to them outside of Christ,

To them with their pantheon of gods which never suffice,

Worshipping the gods that they themselves have formed,

Their creation that they also worship could never be the norm.

Plus they regard true Christians as lacking in scholarship

Purporting them to be far behind and continuing to slip

Choosing rather to believe in fancies and fiction and lies

Hoping one day to see this God who will appear in the skies.

But consider that none of us has control over the future,

The past is just that and in a our minds a receding picture;

In the present we live but that too quickly becomes the past

And we must make adjustments since the present passes so fast.

Clearly we are not in control as we often pretend to be,

We are not on top of everything and that is plain to see,

Not in control of our days, our weeks, our months or years

And our plan for the future is oft flawed when the future appears.

This perception of control is a perception; that’s all that it is

For each day brings a new set of questions: a different quiz,

And often while grappling with the issues presented on a day

The next day arrives with its challenges much to our dismay.

And how do we respond to these constant challenging days?

Well from my obscured vantage point we do so in varied ways:

Some will throw up their hands in stark displays of disgust,

Some hands will fall limply by the side; too fatigue to even fuss. 

Some will show a determined face though inwardly weak,

Quite a few will not even bother to hide their fearful streak,

Still some will struggle on though faced by imminent defeat

While others will try to find solace in some form or just retreat.

So which one of us is in control? Please raise your hand,

Which one of us gets what he wants simply by a demand?

Which one of us is unaffected regardless of what another does?

Just as I thought, not a hand raised; only a growing buzz.

We can’t add another heartbeat to the length of our days

Even when the best medical mind tries a myriad of ways,

It’s really a fallacy when we speak of prolonging one’s life

For all our days are numbered come peace or come strife.

Not one has ever lived to reach the one-thousandth year,

Only a few in very ancient times have even come near,

Nine hundred and sixty nine is the maximum the Scriptures recall

Along with a few ‘nine hundred plus’ before they too were stalled.

Life and death, origins and destinies are in the Master’s hand,

They were all instituted at His creative command,

He simply spoke the word and it all came to pass,

What we are now experiencing is already scripted and cast.

God is the one in control whatever our perceived reality,

Faith not sight is what He demands from all of humanity

The one who will come to Him must first believe that He exists,

‘Having not seen yet believed’ characterizes the ones He enlists.

So that control is a figment of your and my imagination,

Self-confidence is a hoax that points one to self-destruction,

Self-actualisation is one’s idea of having arrived at his destination

When in fact he has lost his way even after frantic desperation.

Only He who created time could ever keep time in control,

Our times are in His hand and He knows the end of our road,

God alone is the one who determines the ticking of life’s clock

And God alone decides when and where that ticking stops.

Still believe that you are in control and have it all down-packed?

Still exuding self-confidence and feel that you’re on track?

Well know most assuredly: delusions and illusions are never fact

And the one who fools himself has done precisely that.

Genuine control is when our agendas align with God’s will,

He is the architect of all that’s good and reaches out to us still,

The present has been given to us to submit to his command

For the past is now a shadow and the future is in God’s hand.

Stewart Russell© 2016