Have you every stopped and asked yourself, "Is this where God had in mind for me to be at this time in my life"? When God was planning your life, and my life, He had something in mind for us each step of the way. He had a learning process that He wanted us to go through. He had a time of application that He wanted us to go through. He had a time of helping others the He wanted us to go through. And He had a time of blessing that He wanted us to go through. Now I'm not saying each of these times are cleanly divided by lines and we just move from one, to the next, and the next. In fact, there are times when we can clearly see that God is teaching us, and we start to apply what He is teaching us to our lives, but He can see we still don't have it...so he takes us back to the learning stage again. This is not because God expects perfection, but instead, it's because God is not a God who sets us up to fail. (And He will be teaching us our entire life) So many times we have an attitude of "ok God, I get it. Let's move forward now". You know, that American mentality of "we want it and we want it now". But God's ways are different than our ways, and His way of thinking is "I will move you forward when I know your ready for what I have for you next". That's tough for us to accept sometimes. We want to go from learning to blessings like a car goes from 0 to 60. We "think" we are ready and sometimes we even move ahead of God. We can even create our own blessings sometimes and say they came from God. When in fact they just came from the works of our own hands, and because of that we will have to work our tails off to maintain them. That's not God. God wants to teach us so much as we walk with Him, and one of those things is patience. He wants us to take a step when He directs us, and wait for His leading on the next one. But sometimes we hear Him clearly on the first step, but we forget to listen for what's next, so we just take off in that direction. I can tell you in my own life that God has led me certain ways not for my own sake, but because He has something else for me to do along the way. Maybe He needed me to reach out to someone, and that was going to be a long process. I have found that He will take us on detours sometime..and we have to be willing to go. When I think about following God's lead I think about John 8:12. In it Jesus says "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life". That verse says enough for me to want to wait on Him. I don't want to step outside of His plans or His will. I don't want to walk in darkness. I want His light to light the way for me. And I've experienced what both of those ways feel like....so I'll take the light!
We need to be very careful on the things we build our lives upon as well. Test them, see if they are from God, and don't put your faith in things that are not from Him. In Luke 6:46-49 Jesus tells a story about the foundation on which we build out lives upon. He said "But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” When we listen for God, we will hear Him. When we hear Him, we must obey. When we do, we are building our foundation upon Him (His rock). That is the place God wants you, and that is the place God can use you. If you know the foundation upon which you are living is a little to "earthy", then today I pray you would take step back and ask Him "where did I take control?". If you allow Him to show you, and you get your feet back on the path He had laid out for you, then you can rest assured that an abundant, meaningful, purpose driven life will be waiting for you. Not one that satisfies the flesh, but one that satisfies the spirit. And one that puts a smile on the face of God!
God, thank You that You do have plans laid out for our lives. Holy Spirit help us to fight the urge to move ahead and to do things in our own power. But instead, to wait upon You Lord and know that we are living a life that not only pleases You, but will glorify You and lead other to You. That is the purpose of this life....help us to always remember that. In Jesus name, Amen.
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