There was a time not long ago when I had so much on my back that I didn’t know how I was going to handle it all. Everything seemed to be either up in the air or falling apart. Not only this, but I wasn’t making enough money to cover all the expenses I had, and my life wasn’t turning out anything like I had envisioned it. Our God has unlimited resources, and He can do what no other can do. I knew this, but I was still panicking. I prayed a lot, but things just didn’t seem to be letting up. As I look back over my life during this time, I realized that I was moving a hundred miles a minute, rushing full speed ahead, but I wasn’t doing much towards tightening my relationship with God. Sure, I prayed, but it was a one-way line of communication. I was sending up requests, but I wasn’t listening and waiting for God’s response to come down.
Proverbs 19:21(NLT) says, “You can make many plans, but the LORD's purpose will prevail.” This will probably always be one of the verses that continually stays in the forefront of my mind. We are taught to make plans and to map out the kind of life we want. It is good to have a plan, and Heavenly Father is not telling us in this verse that we shouldn’t have a plan. He is calling our attention to a tendency that we have, and it is to continue making plans without consulting Him. We can be very one-tracked when it comes to what we want. We busy ourselves with developing a plan to go get it, and then, when this plan fails, most of us will construct another plan. Many of us will continue down this path until we get tired of hitting a brick wall, and the disappointment of failure wears us out.
Proverbs 19:21 is an absolute! It’s a truth that is required to set the ‘START’ mode for all our endeavors. Without an understanding of what God requires of us, we are walking around in the dark, bumping into those brick walls and setting ourselves up for possible failure. Jesus Christ said in John 8:12(NLT), “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” God commands that we, as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, walk in the light of Christ. This means that we learn to walk in his example, and it also means that we will place the Will and Plan of God over and above any plans or personal agendas that we have.
God has given us free-will agency. We can make any choice and decision we want, but in Matthew 6:33, Jesus Christ commands us to seek God’s Will first. This is the greatest, most rewarding decision we can make. God has given us a will. We self-govern, and it is this self-governing will of ours that allows us to commune and fellowship with God in a relational way. Genesis 1:26 tells us that He created us in His own image. We’re like Him in that He has a Will, and we have a will. If we didn’t have free-will, we wouldn’t be His sons and daughters, but we’d be something along the lines of robots or puppets. We’d do everything we’d be told to do without fail. That’s not how God created us, and it’s not what He wanted. He wanted a family. He wanted children of light.
Choosing God’s Will over our own will and personal agenda is our greatest act of faith. It sets Jesus Christ in the Lordship position of our lives, and it establishes our commitment to follow him. When we’re consumed with the stuff we’re trying to push through, we sometimes miss the opportunity to check in with God and find out what’s the best course of action for the plan HE has for our lives. You see, He doesn’t force His Will on us, we have to choose it.
Sometimes we make our journey to the light a very bumpy ride because we won’t surrender our wills. We like the relationships, the people, the things that we think will make us comfortable and cozy. We choose a path that we believe will set us up for success, but that’s not always the path God has in mind. Sometimes, we get on the wrong trajectory, one that leads us further away from our destinies than closer to them. Ephesians 5:8 tells us that before we found the Lord, we were of the darkness. Now, we are lights in the Lord and we should walk as children of light. When we walk as God’s children of light, the Spirit of Christ will illuminate the right path for us, but we must be committed to seek God’s guidance. We must wait for His instructions, and allow Him to direct our paths. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
"The Journey to the Light”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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