Proverbs 20:24
“The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?”
Does your life today look anything like what you had planned for yourself?
For the past several weeks I have been struck by the realization that my life currently looks nothing like anything I had ever planned. While this may not seem all that odd, as someone who is a planner to the core and started reading the Occupational Outlook Handbook for fun and researching colleges in sixth grade, this seems somewhat ironic.
When I consider many of the main aspects of my life today, I never saw any of them coming. Living in Minnesota…definitely didn’t plan that one. Being a stay-at-home mom to three amazing little guys…nope. Marrying a man who graduated from my high school, but I didn’t meet until I was an adult…no way. A degree in theology…never. The list could go on…
As I ponder all of these unplanned events and circumstances that currently make up my life I am struck by the fact that God’s plan for our lives is often so very different than our own. I’d often pictured life as a sprint with the goal of reaching and accomplishing God’s purpose for me as a destination to be reached. However, I am learning more and more that fulfilling the works that God has for us is not a sprint with a known finish line, but rather a journey that tends to twist and turn with unknown detours and stops along the way.
As a professor of mine recently said, “Our job is not to hit the target, we need to just be drawn towards the target and allow it to hit us.”
The key to fulfilling our purpose therefore is not to charge ahead doing everything in our power to reach a distant destination that we believe to be our end goal; rather, our aim should be to walk side by side with Jesus each and every day, allowing Him to determine the steps of our path.
My hope is no longer to achieve a specific, detailed future as I currently see it; instead my prayer is that I would not get one step ahead of, or lag one step behind God and His direction for me. How about you?
My prayer is that I will be so in tune with God’s leading on a daily basis that I will clearly understand when He tells me, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). That I will understand those times when He wants me to wait patiently and allow Him to fight for me (Exodus 14:14). And that I will also hear when He tells me to get up and push forward with everything I have (Joshua 1:9).
Whether I should start, stop, turn, pursue a different route, etc. I want to follow wherever it is that God leads, regardless if it is what I had in mind or not.
No two of our journeys will look exactly alike. What He tells you to do in one season may in fact be the exact opposite of what He is tells me to do. That is why we need to build our relationship with Him, so that we can discern His voice above the noise of the world.
Consider the following:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5
“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” James 4:8
Want to fulfill your unique purpose in life? Then stay in step with God and be open to His leading…wherever that may take you.
Spend time getting to know Him better through His Word, pray continually, and seek His will above your own. When you are in step with your Creator, the One who has designed a plan for you, then and only then will you accomplish your beautiful and specific purpose.
How might you be getting ahead of God today? Could it be that you need to slow down, be still, and allow God to lead you? Conversely, might there be an area in which you are lagging behind God’s leading? Where He has told you to go, but you are still strolling along?
Let’s purpose together to stay in step with God and His leading each and every day. I can only imagine the incredible journey ahead for each and every one of us when we are completely in step with Him!
