Who's in Control of Your Life?

As I worked in my yard this morning, I watched neighbors pass by (walking dogs, pushing strollers & patiently walking w/their toddlers) and my mind began to dwell on this thought...we come into this world under management; we live our lives under management; and we all die under management! Unfortunately too many people live and die under the same management! What am I talking about? The Bible says we are born in sin and from birth we have a sinful nature. But it also says we don't have to live in sin & we don't have to die in sin!
If you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord & Savior, you're no longer under old management. It's because of what Jesus did on the cross that you & I have a new nature and have been placed under new management! This is confirmed in chapter 2 of the Book of Ephesians.

Every now & then, do you find yourself traveling down memory lane, and sentimentally thinking those were the "good old days"? Let's face it, those days weren't nearly as good as we want to remember. We walked around blinded by our desires to indulge the lusts of the flesh, busy having fun with the women/men, drinking liquor and/or doing drugs. Oh, and we had to work hard to make that money so we could spend it on our "good times"! When you really think about it, we were sinful beings who were self-consuming, and if left unchecked we were headed to self-destruction (I'm sure you know someone, a friend, relative or acquaintance, whose life was destroyed by that type of continued behavior).

Thank God for His saving Grace for I am a new creation; old things/wants/desires have passed away & new things have come into my life! Now if you don't fully understand that last statement, maybe this analogy will help: When Standard Oil first started refining petroleum it left a black, sticky, stink residue that no one knew what to do with. A chemist found a solution to the problem & turned the residue into paraffin (a white shiny substance used in candles today). Well, like that chemist, God takes the dirty, sticky, stinking parts of our lives & applies His cleansing agent (the blood of Jesus Christ) to remove the dirt. And for those of us who have gone through this process, we have been cleansed/re-created--- in the past we walked in sin, but in the present we are walking in righteousness--- in the past we were dead in sin, but in the present we are alive in Jesus Christ---and in the past we were under old managment (Satan's) but in the present it's the new management of God which is in control of our lives!
Who's in control of your life?