How many times have you had an idea in your mind and you could see the vision of it in your head, but, then when you start to put it together, things start to change and don't go the way that you planned? I see this happen too often when we are believing for the Lord to do something in our life, answer a prayer or open a door. We have the faith that we need for God to do it, but we have a different picture of what it should look like when it happens. I struggle with this more than I'm happy to admit. As I am growing in this area, I'm learning that the Lord has His own blueprints that He has drawn up and how He wants things to look. I've also learned that, with His plans comes lessons and accountability. And of course, our plans have omitted those 2 things because, let's just be honest, we don't want to travel the hard road and go through the wilderness. And the Lord doesn't take us that way to punish us, it is on those paths where we draw closer to Him and not only does He delivers the blessing, but He also prepares and equips us.
As I have gone before the Lord so many times asking and petitioning for things, I notice how I start to get overly excited about the outcome of things. Wondering, not if He's going to do it, but, how He's going to do it. I draw up this picture in my mind of how things are going to play out and I start to look for all the signs to see if it's happening. Time after time, this type of behavior has left me discouraged and convicted. Discouraged because I'm not seeing things that I think I should see. Things that if they are taking place, I can know that the Lord is moving and answering prayers. My conviction comes because I realize that I'm lacking in my faith and trust with the Lord and I don't believe He can do it, not without my help anyway!!! Convicted because once again I have overstepped my boundaries with God.
For the past 3 years, we have been believing for our daughter to have an encounter with the Lord. We have sown spiritually, financially and naturally believing for new fruit in her life. We also had to make some changes, set some boundaries and made sure that we never compromised. When you are facing a storm and enduring trouble times, it's hard to see the sun shining behind the clouds or see the root that is sprouting up. I had an idea in my mind how her encounter with the Lord was going to look and how her life was going to take off after that. Boy! did I set myself up for disappointment. I imagined that we would be at church and right there on the altar we would see the Lord touch her (and I know that can still happen). I imagined that she would be this radical praise and worshiper. Week after week I would wait and watch to see if it was going to happen. I can imagine how God was probably sitting back, looking at me, laughing to Himself, thinking, "here she goes again, she has no idea when and how I am going to move in her daughter's life." He was right, I didn't know. All I was doing, was exhausting my mind with thoughts and perceptions of how I thought things should look. And you know what? Because things were not looking the way I thought they should look, I almost didn't recognize that my daughter had connected with the Lord and some type of encounter has taken place in her life.
Just because she wasn't praising like I wanted her to, she was still engaging God. Just because she was grabbing the mic and praying, she was still asking for Him to change her heart. When we would ride in the car and listen to the radio (clean music that is), she would know all the lyrics to the songs and would sing them. But when we would put on a praise and worship song she would just look out the window. There were times, that I would get so upset and shut the radio off...it wasn't looking like I wanted it to look. She helps out at the church we attend, but because she didn't show the same level of excitement that the rest of the family does, I assumed she was just going through the motions. One day, the Lord talked to me very sternly and told me, "you're so caught up in the way that YOU think things should look, you haven't even recognized what I have already done...WOW! After that, I began to see where changed had begun to take place in her. During church service, she was no longer sitting there with a blank look on her face and she was participating and engaging. She would share with her friends at school and in her writing assignments how she really enjoyed serving at the ministry and helping children. I almost missed the day when we were in the car and she starting singing the lyrics to one of the praise songs that were playing, and if that didn't do it, I would have missed the time when she asked me to turn up the volume so she could her another praise song that was playing (and her friend was in the car with her) PRAISE HIM!
So what am I saying in this post today? Even though it doesn't look like what you think it should look like, it doesn't mean that the Lord isn't moving. Maybe you are believing for your spouse to come to church with you or he is going to church, but he just sits there with no expression, but because he hasn't made that step yet, you don't recognize that he is no longer complaining when you leave the house or when he goes, he no longer rushes you to get to the car. Maybe you haven't experienced complete healing, but you haven't recognize, that you are stronger than what you were, or your appetite has increased. Maybe your finances are not where you would like for them to be, but you were able to prepare a meal everyday for your family or you made it to work on a little tank of gas. Maybe your marriage is still struggling, but you haven't recognize that you and your spouse have not argued and you actually enjoyed each others company even if it only lasted for a moment. Maybe your kids have been out of control, but, you missed the night that you actually got them down to bed without a fighting just one night. Maybe your still unemployed, but recently people have been asking for your help and you really enjoy it, or you are starting to get new ideas, so when that job does come, you will not only be qualified, but, will have more to bring to the table.
We have got to stop expecting for things to look a certain way and just expect that God is moving. I "thank God" He didn't allow me to miss this nuggets of hope that I am seeing in my daughter. God is a big God, He doesn't need our help. What He needs is for us to not interfere. And if we want to help Him, move out the way and so He can move in, keep praying and believing in faith, focus and meditate on His word. You see, we will always have to surrender to the Lord; our will, dreams, doubts and fears and yes, even our perception of things. God is moving and His picture will always look better than ours.
Remember, surrender all...
Tynisha
As I have gone before the Lord so many times asking and petitioning for things, I notice how I start to get overly excited about the outcome of things. Wondering, not if He's going to do it, but, how He's going to do it. I draw up this picture in my mind of how things are going to play out and I start to look for all the signs to see if it's happening. Time after time, this type of behavior has left me discouraged and convicted. Discouraged because I'm not seeing things that I think I should see. Things that if they are taking place, I can know that the Lord is moving and answering prayers. My conviction comes because I realize that I'm lacking in my faith and trust with the Lord and I don't believe He can do it, not without my help anyway!!! Convicted because once again I have overstepped my boundaries with God.
For the past 3 years, we have been believing for our daughter to have an encounter with the Lord. We have sown spiritually, financially and naturally believing for new fruit in her life. We also had to make some changes, set some boundaries and made sure that we never compromised. When you are facing a storm and enduring trouble times, it's hard to see the sun shining behind the clouds or see the root that is sprouting up. I had an idea in my mind how her encounter with the Lord was going to look and how her life was going to take off after that. Boy! did I set myself up for disappointment. I imagined that we would be at church and right there on the altar we would see the Lord touch her (and I know that can still happen). I imagined that she would be this radical praise and worshiper. Week after week I would wait and watch to see if it was going to happen. I can imagine how God was probably sitting back, looking at me, laughing to Himself, thinking, "here she goes again, she has no idea when and how I am going to move in her daughter's life." He was right, I didn't know. All I was doing, was exhausting my mind with thoughts and perceptions of how I thought things should look. And you know what? Because things were not looking the way I thought they should look, I almost didn't recognize that my daughter had connected with the Lord and some type of encounter has taken place in her life.
Just because she wasn't praising like I wanted her to, she was still engaging God. Just because she was grabbing the mic and praying, she was still asking for Him to change her heart. When we would ride in the car and listen to the radio (clean music that is), she would know all the lyrics to the songs and would sing them. But when we would put on a praise and worship song she would just look out the window. There were times, that I would get so upset and shut the radio off...it wasn't looking like I wanted it to look. She helps out at the church we attend, but because she didn't show the same level of excitement that the rest of the family does, I assumed she was just going through the motions. One day, the Lord talked to me very sternly and told me, "you're so caught up in the way that YOU think things should look, you haven't even recognized what I have already done...WOW! After that, I began to see where changed had begun to take place in her. During church service, she was no longer sitting there with a blank look on her face and she was participating and engaging. She would share with her friends at school and in her writing assignments how she really enjoyed serving at the ministry and helping children. I almost missed the day when we were in the car and she starting singing the lyrics to one of the praise songs that were playing, and if that didn't do it, I would have missed the time when she asked me to turn up the volume so she could her another praise song that was playing (and her friend was in the car with her) PRAISE HIM!
So what am I saying in this post today? Even though it doesn't look like what you think it should look like, it doesn't mean that the Lord isn't moving. Maybe you are believing for your spouse to come to church with you or he is going to church, but he just sits there with no expression, but because he hasn't made that step yet, you don't recognize that he is no longer complaining when you leave the house or when he goes, he no longer rushes you to get to the car. Maybe you haven't experienced complete healing, but you haven't recognize, that you are stronger than what you were, or your appetite has increased. Maybe your finances are not where you would like for them to be, but you were able to prepare a meal everyday for your family or you made it to work on a little tank of gas. Maybe your marriage is still struggling, but you haven't recognize that you and your spouse have not argued and you actually enjoyed each others company even if it only lasted for a moment. Maybe your kids have been out of control, but, you missed the night that you actually got them down to bed without a fighting just one night. Maybe your still unemployed, but recently people have been asking for your help and you really enjoy it, or you are starting to get new ideas, so when that job does come, you will not only be qualified, but, will have more to bring to the table.
We have got to stop expecting for things to look a certain way and just expect that God is moving. I "thank God" He didn't allow me to miss this nuggets of hope that I am seeing in my daughter. God is a big God, He doesn't need our help. What He needs is for us to not interfere. And if we want to help Him, move out the way and so He can move in, keep praying and believing in faith, focus and meditate on His word. You see, we will always have to surrender to the Lord; our will, dreams, doubts and fears and yes, even our perception of things. God is moving and His picture will always look better than ours.
Remember, surrender all...
Tynisha
Comments
Post a Comment
"Join Me on this Journey, Share Your Words of Encouragement"