[stextbox id=”or”] Here’s a lovely guest post by my friend Virginia Belola. Worshipper, anointed writer and a passionate Jesus lover – that’s Virginia for you! Beautiful, both on the inside and outside, Virginia is a Kingdom partner with Apostolic Revival House, Mumbai pastored by her husband Vijay Belola. She also serves as an editor with Revive Nations. Make sure you check out her blog and connect with her on Twitter here. [/stextbox]
So, here’s the plan.
Now that I am done with my studies, I will find a job. I’ll then work my way up the corporate ladder and make good money for myself, my future and my family. By the age of 24, I will meet the man I am going to spend the rest of my life with. We will spend the next year and half getting to know each other better. After that, we will be engaged for about 6 months.
At 26, I will get married. Oh, how I have dreamed of this day since I was a little girl! I know exactly what the place will look like. I have imagined every tiny detail. I have created and lived this day a million times in my mind. The aisle, where I will walk down with my bridesmaids right behind me, will be adorned in the most beautiful colours and hues. The altar, where we will stand and pledge our love to each other, will be the frame to our perfect picture as husband and wife. The reception will be grand yet personal with our friends and families around us witnessing our love for each other.
Then we take 2 more years after we get married to grow into the relationship as husband and wife, set up our home, prepare for our children and make detailed elaborate plans for our future. In the meanwhile, we will always be like when we first fell in love. Then we’ll have children and they will be perfect in every imaginable way. I even have their names picked out since I was 15.
Ideal plan?
No, I am not reading out of your diary.
But it does sound idyllic, doesn’t it? Seamless. Easily flowing from one turn of life into the other. No perceived obstacles. No untoward circumstances. This is how most girls dream as they are growing up. (Either that or I have an extremely vivid imagination!)
We plan and plot how our life should be and for some, it does become a reality but for the majority, it is just a list of unplanned disappointments. Broken, shattered dreams can wound worse than some life tragedies. And in all this, you wonder if there even is a God who really cares.
And because we have such elaborate plans, we take it for granted that this has to be how God should make it happen. To us, it is sheer genius and somewhere in heaven, I am sure He is looking down at us and saying, “I have a better plan. If only you let Me close enough to replace your imagination with my reality for you, things will be so much better!”
So what do you do at a time like this?
Hold on to hope: In the face of all hopelessness, hold on to hope. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us this, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God is not a liar nor does He pacify you with platitudes. He will do what He has said He will do.
Prepare yourself for what is to come: Unless and until you are not ready, God cannot give into your hands the responsibilities that you expect. Yes, I said responsibilities. Your studies, your job, your marriage, your children, your ministry, your church; they are all responsibilities. Moreover, they are opportunities for you to display the goodness and nature of God! Seize such chances. Don’t let them go by. To some, you will be the only Gospel they will come in contact with.
Guard your heart: Turn away from any vile thought and set your heart on things above. Find rest in the arms of the One who loves you. Fill your mind and feed your spirit (wo)man with the word of God. Once you’ve heard and know will all your heart what your Father in heaven thinks about you, then no-one can tell you any different! Worship Him continually; when you are at home, when you are travelling, waiting at the bus stand. Make your life His resting place. Where God is, all His goodness is.
Surrender: Put aside all your plans and in complete surrender, invite Him to take complete control over your circumstances. And then when you have given the reins of your life into His hands, resist every desire to take them back again. And then like Jesus, in the midst of a storm, you will be able to lie down and rest.
Today, I’d like to encourage you. I want to cheer you on as you speak life into your situations. There is nothing that your Father in Heaven cannot fix. Isaiah 55:9 says, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” We are victorious and not defeated as long as we are in the centre of God’s will for our lives.
Be blessed!