Living By a Different Timeline
Seventy-five degree weather has finally made its way back to my habitation. It's been long in coming.
This year there wasn't a gradual slip from winter to spring. One day you rise from sleep and find things to be far different than you anticipated.
My life has become punctuated with sudden changes as of late. You'll find that when you lay your future in the hands of God, you never know what it's going to end up looking like. In the words of Arthur Conan Doyle, "The unexpected has happened so frequently in my life that it ceases to deserve the name."
And yet, it turns out to be quite beautiful. For what seems like ages I've held onto the words of Martin Luther, reformer of the 16th century Church:
"All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask."
Too often we focus on the "will receive what they asked", and the "God will give you the desires of your heart" parts of Scripture. We want to believe God will give us exactly what we want, when we want it.
There is certainly a difference between holding onto your life with white knuckles and maintaining a loose grip. Surely in the service of our King, if we should ever take a hold of our life it should be only to deliver it into His hands again and again.
The heart which finds itself surrendered to the Father's will indeed find what it seeks. The desires of its heart WILL be satisfied, because now it desires God and His fullness. It desires Him and His dreams for its life, and He is ever-willing to give us Himself.
There are paths I have sought in days gone by which crumbled to dust. (Hallelujah!) But in the searching and the longing for God to reveal His purposes in my life, I have been led to places and people I could've never imagined being a part of.
We may plan our days and think we know the direction our stories are headed, but we don't hold the pen. We never have, praise God!
Instead He comes to take us beyond the borders of what we've known, into the swirling sea of His dreams for His people. The beauty of this arrangement is beyond us.
As a result of His work in my life as of late, I will be stepping into a leadership role this summer. I know that every aspect of this change has been orchestrated by Him from the very beginning of this current journey.
My extended family and friends ask me what my two year and five year plans are. I have no idea even what the next twelve months hold. But I'm more than okay with that.
Maybe we find peace not in our plans but rather in His Purpose? I know I'd far rather live by God's timeline.
What about you?
This year there wasn't a gradual slip from winter to spring. One day you rise from sleep and find things to be far different than you anticipated.
My life has become punctuated with sudden changes as of late. You'll find that when you lay your future in the hands of God, you never know what it's going to end up looking like. In the words of Arthur Conan Doyle, "The unexpected has happened so frequently in my life that it ceases to deserve the name."
And yet, it turns out to be quite beautiful. For what seems like ages I've held onto the words of Martin Luther, reformer of the 16th century Church:
"All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask; yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask."
Too often we focus on the "will receive what they asked", and the "God will give you the desires of your heart" parts of Scripture. We want to believe God will give us exactly what we want, when we want it.
There is certainly a difference between holding onto your life with white knuckles and maintaining a loose grip. Surely in the service of our King, if we should ever take a hold of our life it should be only to deliver it into His hands again and again.
The heart which finds itself surrendered to the Father's will indeed find what it seeks. The desires of its heart WILL be satisfied, because now it desires God and His fullness. It desires Him and His dreams for its life, and He is ever-willing to give us Himself.
There are paths I have sought in days gone by which crumbled to dust. (Hallelujah!) But in the searching and the longing for God to reveal His purposes in my life, I have been led to places and people I could've never imagined being a part of.
We may plan our days and think we know the direction our stories are headed, but we don't hold the pen. We never have, praise God!
Instead He comes to take us beyond the borders of what we've known, into the swirling sea of His dreams for His people. The beauty of this arrangement is beyond us.
As a result of His work in my life as of late, I will be stepping into a leadership role this summer. I know that every aspect of this change has been orchestrated by Him from the very beginning of this current journey.
My extended family and friends ask me what my two year and five year plans are. I have no idea even what the next twelve months hold. But I'm more than okay with that.
Maybe we find peace not in our plans but rather in His Purpose? I know I'd far rather live by God's timeline.
What about you?
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