I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
I read two devotionals this morning that had a recurring theme, that of talking to God before carrying out my plans. As Tina Wilson said in her book “Step into Scripture” for today’s devotional, “We blaze ahead with our plans, not thinking of what God wants or seeking him first. Then, when things fall apart, we wonder why God let it happen.” The important words are OUR plans and not seeking God first. I confess that this is a great fault of mine, to make plans and forge ahead. Then, in the middle of a mess and chaos that I never expected, I ask God what happened and why He wasn’t there. You know why, don’t you? I didn’t pause to talk to Him first, ask Him what plan He would like me to follow and then listen to Him. Joshua made this mistake in attacking Ai, and there was a consequence to pay for it. We don’t get out of the messes that we make unscathed. God wants us to learn the important lesson of calling on him FIRST, then executing the plan that He has put into our hearts. Good to remember that God loves us enough to keep us straight about just Who is in control!
That word “submitting” is not very popular today as it evokes memories of men “lording it over women” and women subserviently doing as they are told, when and how they are told. But submission is actually a protection provided to us by God, especially when it refers to submitting to God.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “submit” means to allow another person or group to have authority over you. You willingly give permission to God to have authority over you. That doesn’t sound like such a bad idea to me, especially since God made me and knows exactly what I need and exactly when I need it. When I am submitted to God, then I have peace. Why? Because peace follows naturally once I know that all that I am and ever will be is in the loving hands of the One who knows me best. And why will things go well with me? Does that mean nothing bad will ever happen? I really wish the latter were true, but life happens every day when we are making other plans. We just have to be willing to learn from the things that we consider bad and move on. I have found that in the moment of dealing with a crisis, everything looks really overwhelming. But when the crisis is past, I can look back and see that they really weren’t so bad. Frequently, I can see God’s hand at work in these circumstances, not that He caused them, but that He works with me in them. He is constantly by my side, helping me to be the one He wants me to be instead of the one that I insist I want to be. For example, we just got home last night from a week of visiting our youngest son and his family. Today, I am just finishing four loads of laundry and then I have to go to the laundromat because our dryer is broken. The parts are coming in sometime next week, but in the meantime, I am inconvenienced by having to go about half an hour away and wait for the clothes to dry before coming home again. Crisis? Not really…but a definite “life happens” moment. Going to the laundromat is not my idea of fun times, but I expect that God can use that time with me to reach my willful heart as well as use me to reach out to others at the laundromat. Perspective…it’s all about perspective. And being willing to submit.
Sometimes it’s hard to make a decision about something and take that first step into the unknown. I faced that after my stroke. The neurologist who was treating me in the ER was on a Zoom call rather than in the room and he told me and my husband that he was 99% sure that I was having a stroke. He gave us the option of my having an injection that could help me (30% chance) or could kill me with about the same percentage. Those didn’t seem like good odds to me, but in my foggy brain, I knew that we needed to pray and call our daughter to pray with us about it. The doctor told us that time was limited because if I did not get the injection within an hour of my symptoms beginning, it would not work. We prayed and asked God for wisdom. Actually, Hope and Harry prayed while I listened since I could barely stutter words at the time. We talked and decided that I would take the injection since the doctor told me that without it, I would not improve at all and may never walk or talk normally again. Was I frightened? Honestly, yes. But I had to take that step in order to ever be able again to take others. That TPA shot, also called a clot buster, saved my ability to function and may have saved my life. But the decision to take it was like standing on the edge of a precipice and knowing that whatever happened, God would be there to catch me.
God has been faithful to take care of me since that first scary step. And, of course, there have been other scary steps along the way of life. That’s what life is about…seeing the choices and taking a step in what you hope is the right direction.
Like Moses, we couldn’t just stay in the wilderness of indecision. We had to take a step. Just, move on. Pray, decide, move.
Once the decision is made, God walks with you and makes His glory shine through whatever choice you have made, provided you have consulted Him and are truly trying your best to follow Him and His will. Delighting in God is more than a happy smile on your face saying that you love the Lord and know that all will be okay. It is a deep feeling that springs from your heart that no matter what happens, God will still be there.
That word “whatever” is important. We have a tendency to make our plans and then ask God to give what we have decided His “rubber stamp of approval.” It just doesn’t work that way. First, we talk to God about the choices we have and ask for His guidance, then we step out in faith and move in the direction that we think He is leading us. If we go the wrong way, we can be assured that God will let us know and get us back on the right pathway, usually after learning a valuable lesson that He is trying to teach us. The most important thing is to make sure we include God in our decisions before we make them rather than asking Him to bless the decision that we have already made.
I have heard all of my life that life is a mystery and we have to solve it. I’m not sure whether it was my mother or grandmother who put that idea into my head, but since mysteries are my favorite genre to read, I have been content with that analogy for years. Then this morning I read a devotional that compared life to a puzzle and I think it is a much more appropriate fit. When I think of a mystery, I think of a bad guy who is lurking in the shadows and the good guy who always wins in the end. Well, that fits if you cast Satan as the bad guy and Jesus as the victor. But in the puzzle analogy, we, God’s creation, seem to have a more active role, so that’s why I like it.
We make plans daily. For example, I knew that this week I volunteered to work at Vacation Bible School at our church. I was first assigned to work in crafts with the elementary children, but that didn’t pan out because it required that I descend steep steps to the classroom. So, the coordinator moved me to preparing snacks in the church kitchen. But when I went to pick up my shirt for the week, I was told that I would be working the check in table outside. I had planned on one thing, but I switched twice. Why? Because I was not in charge! I’m a volunteer.
That’s what we are in the Lord’s army. We are volunteers and sometimes we like to think that we are in charge and make plans accordingly. But God, who is in charge, may change our plans according to what He needs and the perspective that He has. He sees all things and all people and knows exactly what needs to happen and when. Life is like a puzzle that God is putting pieces together and we can only see one small part of it and sometimes that doesn’t make sense to us until we back away and look at it from a distance. We have to trust that God knows what He is doing and turn over our desires to Him so that He can mold us and them into something that makes sense for His big plan.
Personally, I am not a fan of puzzles. The intricate skill of choosing pieces and fitting them together so that one big beautiful picture is complete has generally escaped me. I was able to complete a puzzle with my grandchildren earlier this summer and was so pleased that I was able to enjoy my time with them working on it. I can just imagine God working out the puzzle of our lives, with the image in His mind of what He has planned for us and how everything will look in the end. The thing is we are not at the end yet. All of the pieces are still being placed and we need to wait patiently, without stamping our feet and demanding that God follow our plans. I don’t like puzzles, but I am willing to concede that since God is putting the pieces of my life together, fitting my pieces in with the pieces of others with whom I interact in this world, then I need to let God and just let Him complete it. I have input because He has given me the ability to make choices but I don’t have the final say, and I’m okay with that. I have discovered that God is not only assembling the puzzle of my life; He is also creating it. And one day I will understand because I will see it from God’s perspective of Heaven and it will all come together beautifully.
May your day be blessed with the wonder of how much God loves you and thanksgiving for the beautiful picture He is creating with your puzzling life.
www.bible.com/reading-plans/13696/day/29
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