218: Shannon Popkin | Surrendering Your Need to Control

Shannon Popkin | Surrendering Your Need to Control

From the platform, page, and podcast mic, Shannon Popkin invites you to drink deeply of God’s story, and live like it’s true.

Shannon’s books include Comparison Girl, and Control Girl, and she hosts the Live Like It’s True Bible podcast.

Shannon has been featured on Revive Our Hearts, FamilyLife Today, The Gospel Coalition, and Proverbs 31.

Shannon is happy to be sharing life with Ken, who makes her laugh every day. Together, they have the joy of watching their three young-adult kids become the amazing people God created them to be.

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Shannon Popkin and Amber discuss the topic of control, and how it can impact our walk with Jesus and with others. Shannon shares practical ways to relinquish control in order to live a surrendered life to God.

Questions Discussed During Surrendering Your Need to Control:

Talk to us about control. I know I struggle with wanting control and I did not realize it until I became a mother. I think that is a part of your story, so share with us when you began to realize the struggle to control was an issue for you?
Not all control is “bad”. We know God is in control and a fruit of the Spirit is self-control, so what is the difference between unhealthy control and necessary control?
How does being a control girl impact our walk with Jesus?
You write about 7 women in the Bible and how they struggled with control. Share one of those with us and what we learn about control from her story?
What are some ways we can practice relinquishing control?

Surrendering Your Need to Control Quotes:

“I’ve never been in a Bible study where somebody even was willing to say, ‘Would you pray for me? I’m a controlling woman.’ “

“I was really focused on fixing him or fixing the problems that I saw. I did not see that as control. I just thought of myself as invested.”

“I think what’s really helpful for me is to ask, ‘What has God given me control of? And what has he not given me control of?’ “

“When we have this assumption that we can control, that we should control, when we actually think of it as a noble thing…It’s dangerous to who we’re becoming. It’s really unraveling all of the things that we are trying to create.”

“In all of the amazing capacities that God has given us to spend our lives, we must bow our knee to him and to his authority over our lives and his order. That is a part of living as though God is King, instead of us.”

“Are we going to live as though it’s true? That [God’s] in control? Or are we going to live like it’s true that we’re the ones who are in control?”

“Really, the question is, if God decides yes or no on the thing that I’m longing for, will I surrender control to him?”

“Surrender is the opposite of control.”

“I think a better picture of surrender is Jesus on his knees and the Garden of Gethsemane. Like bent over in grueling agony. His sweat was like drops of blood, and he is crying out to the Father, saying, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And that I think that’s a better picture of surrender to have in mind.”