Manipulation

How much do we try to control our own destinies? How much do we try to control others to get what we want? Why? Is it sinful to try and control others by manipulation?

We live in a world that says that it is all about us, all about what we want to do, where we would like to go and what we would like to own, etc. So how do we obtain the ability to have our own way, to get the things that we want when we want them? Do we submit all things to God or do we tell God what we want and get disappointed with Him when we do not get that thing? This would be just like the little child in the supermarket trolley wanting mum to buy them treats and having a tantrum if mum did not obey, so as to embarrass mum into giving in.

JAMES 4 : 13 - 17 NKJV


13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

How much of our prayer is telling God what we want? "Lord please save my brother he is lost" What happens when that brother rejects the gospel? Do we get angry with God? Do we expect that because we asked God for that thing that He must perform it? That would put us in control of God. In fact He would be our servant. Surely we can ask God for anything but should we expect that He would make it happen for us? I believe that we should be asking God in every situation what He wants us to do, to have, to pray, etc.

Do we also try to get those around us to do as we will and if they do not obey us do we use anger, disappointment, upset, etc. to try to manipulate them into having a change of heart? Is this submitting to one another? No it is rebellion towards one another and that is witchcraft.

1 SAMUEL 15 : 23 NKJV
 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He also has rejected you from being king.”

Why does a person behave like this? I believe that it is how that person behaved as an infant  and when they found that it gave them a form of control over the authority figures in their lives, they called it good because it got them what they wanted. By the way we have all tried this and many of us still practice it. But we can be free of it if we would just call on God to show us how we practice these things and that he would show us where these sins originated from so that we may repent and learn the way of submission. If your heart is saying, but I do not want to, then you know that you have a real problem. A person who wants to be a ruler of their own kingdom can not be a subject of God's Kingdom.

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