Making Peace with What I Can't Control: Find Relief from the Exhaustion of Overthinking, Trying to Fix Others, and Wanting to Figure It All Out

Summary

Read by the author.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst offers a life-giving alternative to the exhausting madness of trying to change people who don't want to be changed, prevent outcomes we fear, and manage things outside of our control.

It's not that we want to be controlling people; it's just that we want to prevent bad things from happening and bring stability to the chaos. Especially when we are afraid of what God seems to be allowing. So we come up with plans and get very intentional about trying to make everyone around us line up with what we really think is best.

We don't have bad motives. We're just desperate to prevent another hardship, more heartbreak, and all the emotional turmoil that feels so unnecessary. But this only leads to a counterfeit version of control where we believe everything depends on us—a crushing weight we were never meant to bear.

In this book, Lysa TerKeurst addresses the tension so many of us live in, where it seems like the Lord isn't paying attention and the only reasonable option is to take matters into our own hands. She shows us how to:

• Identify the core fears that fuel us to reach for control but only compound the chaos.
• Know when we're crossing the line from healthy responsibility into the dangerous territory of fear-driven control.
• Recognize specific tactics of the enemy that keep us in spiritual confusion (about God), fueled by emotional exhaustion (from the relentlessness of life).
• Stop allowing the decisions of others to rob our peace by learning what to do when we feel tempted to inappropriately intervene, rescue, or control the narrative.
• Wrestle honestly with the Lord about hard questions like, Why aren't You doing more to change this person or these circumstances? and I didn't see You do it then, so how do I know You'll do it now?

Together, we'll learn that it's not too late to take the weight of the world off our shoulders and hand over to God what was always supposed to be His to carry.

Bible verses and reflection prompts can be found in the audiobook companion PDF download.