Picture courtesy of Splashnewsonline

As I was reading an article this morning about  troubled entertainer, Amy Winehouse, whose CDs are selling well in spite of her heroin and alcohol addictions, I thought about a saying that I keep hearing. “Jesus, Take the Wheel”. That saying apparently comes from a song by the same title, sang by Carrie Underwood.

It occurred to me that Jesus will not “take” anything from us. We have to give it to Him, as He is a Gentleman. A more appropriate saying would be, “Jesus, I surrender the wheel to You”. In the song, the woman willingly gave the wheel to Jesus. She admitted that she was not able to handle it anymore. It is at that place that God can help us, but we have to admit to Him that we trust Him more than we trust ourselves!

And that’s my word of inspiration for the weekend. So many of us have concerns and trials that come up in our lives. There are people out here who want the Lord to “take” our problems away from us. He won’t do that. We must “give” the problems to Him to solve.  He will not take an addiction, for example. We have to surrender it to Him.

Although it would surely be nice if God would simply take the wheel from someone such as Michael Jackson or Amy Winehouse or anyone else in trouble, the truth is, He gives us freedom of choice. Neither Amy nor Michael have ever accepted Him as Lord and Savior. Both are trying to have their needs fulfilled through means other than Him. Neither are willing yet to turn over the “wheel” to Him. They are trying to exercise control.

You know what? If we are so stubborn that we will hold on to the controls, knowing full well that we are wreckless, God will stand by and wait for us to come around—or not come around. But He is patient. We cannot out-wait Him and He is willing to let us go ahead and die if needbe. God does not bow or bend to our whims, will, or stubborn streak.

Jesus, take the wheel?  He’ll gladly take it after we surrender it to Him.