A Small Part In A Big Plan

Lord, I don’t know where it is You are leading me to, but I can somehow tell it is far more than I can imagine.
I may plan something that seems great, but I know You have something greater.
Whatever the task may be, thank You.
Thank You for allowing me to have a part in Your plan. It is an honor–privelege even–I love You, Lord.

A Focus On God

So often I feel like I’m getting nowhere…likely because in a sense, I am getting nowhere. For years I’ve been in square one: preparation. It has definitely been a real test on my patience!

I know there are many others out there in a similar situation:

You know where God is calling you, but you don’t know when or how you’re going to get there.

Those can be pretty big questions. For me, where I’ve felt God has been leading me seems right next to impossible. Often I don’t even know where to start…giving up would definitely be the easier route.

There are a lot of things I don’t know–I will always be learning–but one thing I have figured out, and that is to keep God as my focus and everything else will fall into place. Easier said than done, yes, but here are a few things I’ve found that should look like:

If my focus is on God, useless things will fade away. Things that used to bring me self-pleasure will be replaced by things that give pleasure to God.

If my focus is on God, fear will be gone. When I am looking to Him, no matter the situation, He gives a peace that leaves no room for fear.

If my focus is on God, true joy cannot be taken away. When I keep my focus on a perfect God who is outside the boundaries of time and my earthly body I will find a joy that can’t be found anywhere else.

If my focus is on God, I will come to know a love that no one else can give. No one is able to better love us than the One who created us, gave His life for us, and who created love Himself.

No matter where we’re at or where God is taking us it is critical for our focus to be on Him. We need to carefully examine ourselves and ask, “Is my focus on God?”

A Car Ride To Remember

Tonight, while spending some time listening to some of my praise and worship favs, I was imagining Jesus in the driver’s seat of a car and myself in the seat behind Him. Before driving, He made sure I had my seatbelt on and frequently looked at me through the rear view mirror to check on me. When our eyes met it was like every fear, worry, and sadness melted away. Part of me wanted to lean over and look over His shoulder to try and see what was ahead, but somehow I knew I shouldn’t. Instead, I found peace in trusting that He knew where we were going and with the windows down I enjoyed the breeze and beautiful views that I may have otherwise missed.

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While trying to see far into the future and what is ahead of us it is easy to miss what is already here. People, events, opportunities…if we’re not careful it is easy for time and things that we could have taken part in slip by completely unnoticed.

We need to allow God to be our driver, let Him do the focusing on the road ahead, and see where He takes us.

My Own Desires

I place my trust in the Lord;
By my own desires I cannot go.
His truth surpasses all understanding;
His knowledge far exceeds what is known.
The wisdom of the Lord cannot be priced,
My reasoning is far below it’s worth.
I run from what my flesh longs for,
As His Spirit leads to a better place.

Who Has Control?

“It’s hopeless.” “There’s nothing I can do.” “It never ends.” “I’m broken.” “I’m scared.” Pain. Sadness. Darkness. … These are things that Satan will try and slip into our thoughts and feelings day and night as long as we allow him to.

I know many will say, “But you don’t know what I’m going through.” or “You just don’t understand.” and you’re probably right. I probably don’t know or understand. Everybody is different. But no matter what we’re going through, we can choose what to do about it. When we’re opening up our ears to what Satan has to tell us, we are letting him take advantage of us! God has made you worthy of so much more than that!

God is not a god of evil, hate, anger, sadness, etc. When we allow these things in our lives, they come between us and God–replacing His love, joy, and peace. We are allowing a wall to be built around us shutting out the good and containing darkness. We are allowing ourselves to be chained up rather than set free. Who wants that?

We need to ask ourselves what it is we truly want…not just accept whatever is put in front of us. We go through hard things in life–it’s not a perfect world. A lot of times when we’re going through something, we assume certain feelings and reactions go along with the package and we just have to accept it. This is not the case.

Someone can steal from you, and you can choose whether to be angry or forgiving. Someone can be diagnosed with a life-threatening condition and choose to live in fear or peace knowing they have eternity with God. Someone can make a mistake and hate themselves, or they can accept God’s forgiveness and live in joy knowing they’re fearfully and wonderfully made.

Let’s replace Satan’s thoughts with, “I messed up, but God has forgiven and made me new.” “I’ve been broken, but God has healed me.” “My body is weak, but He keeps my spirit strong.” “Satan pulls me down, but God lifts me up.” “Some make me angry, but I will forgive as Christ forgave me.” “I was afraid, but I’ve been reminded that God is greater than all things.” “I used to only see hate, but now I see God’s love.” “I didn’t think I could have joy again, but God’s joy is far greater than Satan’s darkness.” 

Don’t let Satan have his way. He will pull you into constant tears and misery if given the consent. This is your life…are you giving it over to God, or to Satan?

We Will Make It

 

Often my mind is quite far away, thinking of children that are hurting and hungry. Children that because of their special needs aren’t given the chance to experience being a child, to know what it is to be loved. I dream night and day of when I am able to hold one in my arms, to be surrounded by these precious gifts that have been hidden away in one place to stay for all their years. To bring joy into their eyes for the first time.

How I will ever reach this point, I don’t know. How long it will be before I can be of any help to these hearts that are yearning I can’t predict. But God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

Wherever God leads us, if we are following, nothing can get in the way. There will be things that seem to get in the way that are actually better preparing us. It takes faith, patience, and a whole lot of perseverance, but if it’s where God is leading us He will get us there.

We have to trust that if it’s where He wants us, we will make it.

Is God Our Focus?

What should our life be like if we are keeping our focus on God?

1. Praising Him
You may wonder why I began with praising Him. Well, it is easy to praise God in the rare situations that everything is perfect and things just seem to be falling into place…but what about when we’ve lost a loved one, we feel like we’re failing, or just have no idea what in the world we should be doing? It is these times that it can be the hardest to praise God—but it’s these times where it is most needed, for our own sake.

By praising Him anyway, it helps us remind ourselves of our priceless blessings of eternal life, God’s love, mercy, and grace that are way more than anyone else can give. It helps us shift from regret, fear, anxiety, and sadness, to contentment, faith, peace, and joy.

“My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.”
Psalm 71:23

2. Following Him
Especially since I lost my license, (due to my epilepsy) I can TOTALLY be a backseat driver. I probably don’t have to get into too much detail to say that it’s not typically something that brings good results, and neither does trying to tell God where we need to go. There’s many times I need God to tell me something like, “Will you just let me drive?”

He can see far down the road while we can only see what’s right in front of us. We need to give Him control. If our focus is on God, then He is in front of us doing the steering.

3. Listen, talk, listen, talk…
Obviously, if we are a Christ-follower we need to have good communication with Him, commonly known as prayer. It’s easy to put our communication with God in a box–a certain timeframe of the day only, giving Him no attention the rest of the day. But what kind of relationship is that? He’s always with you, and doesn’t only speak through words.

Watch out for situations where there is someone in front of you in need and listen to see if God is asking you to help that person. When someone gives you encouraging words, don’t only thank them, but thank God who likely was speaking through them. Look for situations where He may do the same through you.

5. Relying on Him
We should be desperately seeking God for help, not placing our trust in the world or ourselves. While He many times helps us through others, we need to understand that it is still from Him. He alone should be our source of strength, wisdom, love, patience, and many other attributes that are critical to living our lives as a true follower.

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2

I started to add a sixth thing on sharing the gospel but then stopped myself as I thought of something. (It’s amazing what you can learn from blogging! 😉) I felt like that would indicate it being something we should take the lead in when it’s not. If we are in constant communication with God, relying on Him, letting Him take the lead with a desire for His will, then His will will come about, including the spreading of the gospel. We need to focus on following Him, and let Him take care of the rest.

(Okay, just curious who noticed I skipped four? 😜)