Joshua Penn & Ashley Robin Remind “God is in Control”
Holy Culture Records artist Joshua Penn teams with Ashley Robin for “God Is in Control,” a laid-back, contemplative track for anyone who has tried to carry their life on their own strength. Built over a smooth, unhurried production from Marv4MoBeats, the song is a conversation with the self: a call to slow down, take a breath, and preach the truth back to your own heart when circumstances shift. Ashley Robin’s chorus works like a mantra, and the repeated reminder at its center becomes something listeners can carry into traffic, a hard workday, or a sleepless night.
Penn opens the first verse by owning a tendency many believers share. When life gets heavy and messy, he admits, his instinct is to grab the wheel, move fast, and handle things himself, as if God had never equipped or directed him. He names worry as an urge he feeds even while knowing he is protected, and he lands on a practice rather than a platitude: being still, quieting the noise, and taking the focus off himself long enough to hear God speak. It is honest, conversational writing that doesn’t pretend the lesson is learned once and for all.
Ashley Robin takes the second verse and turns the lens on anxiety directly. She questions why she lets it win, why she keeps speeding ahead as though she’s the one driving, and why she acts as though God isn’t already aware of her needs and already moving on them. Her verse builds toward a declaration of God’s sufficiency, describing a God who works regardless of what she feels or sees, who exceeds every hope and dream she brings Him, and who needs no help to win. The verse cuts off mid-thought and drops straight back into the hook, a structural choice that mirrors the song’s message: the answer to the spiral is to return to the reminder.
The heart of “God Is in Control” is the idea of talking to yourself instead of listening to yourself. Rather than letting anxious thoughts set the agenda, Penn and Robin model the old practice of speaking truth inward, echoing the Psalms, where the writer questions his own downcast soul and redirects it toward hope. The sports imagery in the chorus, trying to run the play without a leader, gives that idea an accessible, everyday hook that will land with listeners whether they are on a field, in an office, or at a kitchen table.
Culturally, the song arrives at a moment when conversations about anxiety, burnout, and mental health have moved to the center of life for young adults, and faith communities are increasingly naming those struggles openly instead of hiding them. “God Is in Control” doesn’t dismiss anxiety or offer a quick fix. It acknowledges the pull of worry and the habit of self-reliance, then points toward stillness, trust, and gratitude as daily disciplines. In a hip-hop culture that often celebrates hustle, self-made success, and never slowing down, the record makes a quietly countercultural case: real strength can look like stepping back and letting God lead.
With its chill, meditative sound and hopeful, grateful spirit, “God Is in Control” fits naturally alongside artists like Jarred AllStar, DJ Lostnfound, Drea LP, Jonah Greene, and Kyle AleXander. It’s a record for morning devotions, late-night drives, and every moment in between when the situation is loud and the soul needs reminding.
An alternative version is also out now!
Lyrics:
[Chorus: Ashley Robin]
Just need to slow down, take a breather
Trying to run the play like I ain’t got a leader
Situations come, situations go
Talk to yourself, God is in control
God is in control
Remind yourself, God is in control
God is in control
Gotta’ talk to yourself, God is in control
[Verse 1: Joshua Penn]
Gotta look to the Light, when these situations be heavy
Life be “lifing”, and sometimes be feeling messy
It can get deadly when I put my own hands in it
Tryna do it on my own strength, like He ain’t never prep me
Moving fast got me ignoring that He’ll direct me
Satisfying the urges to worry, though He protects me
I gotta practice being still, slow down, keep reaching
Focus off of self and drown the noise just to hear Him speaking
[Chorus: Ashley Robin]
Just need to slow down, take a breather
Trying to run the play like I ain’t got a leader
Situations come, situations go
Talk to yourself, God is in control
God is in control
Remind yourself, God is in control
God is in control
Gotta’ talk to yourself, God is in control
[Verse 2: Ashley Robin]
Anxiety, why do I let it come get the best of me?
Speeding ahead, like I’m in the drivers seat
Why am I acting like He not running things?
Seeing me and all my needs, like He not already on it
Like He don’t move regardless of what I feel or what I see
Like He don’t hit them targets
Take all my hopes and dreams, exceed em, make em seem like garbage
He undefeated, unassisted, He don’t need it, I
[Chorus: Ashley Robin]
Just need to slow down, take a breather
Trying to run the play like I ain’t got a leader
Situations come, situations go
Talk to yourself, God is in control
God is in control
Remind yourself, God is in control
God is in control
Gotta’ talk to yourself, God is in control
