It's my birthday! In FOCUS that means it's time for birthday wisdom!
God had shown me a bit of wisdom this last year that has quickly permeated my thoughts and decision making processes. In the last year God has taught me that His way is the best one and only one He will tolerate. These lessons came amidst times of joy and, because of my stubbornness, times of pain.
As it turns out, God knows what He's doing, a lot better than me actually, and it's a wise idea to follow His plans and abandon my own when the two don't match. I've found that it's easy to say that I trust God and that His will for us is best but it's much harder to act in a way that confirms those words.
There have been many times in the last year where I faced a fork in my life, a decision point. Standing at these forks I often see two paths. Off that way is the one I know, I’m familiar with it, I know what lies down that path with its challenges and rewards. That’s the comfortable path I want to take. Off this way is the other path. I’ve not traveled this one before; it looks steeper than that one, more difficult. I’m not even sure where this one goes… maybe a serene sunlit meadow or a damp cave, or over a cliff. This is of course the path I sense God saying to take. He wants me to venture into the unknown, untested territory of His will.
Thoughts flow through me –
“Is God really saying this way? I like that way though, I like where it leads. I can take God’s path next time, no big deal. Maybe I can try that path and if it doesn’t go well I’ll come back to this one. But how can I say God’s plan is best and knowingly take the other?”
God then throws in a helping thought –
“You’re mere words aren’t good enough to prove your faith, either you act in agreement with them or they are false sayings and yours is a false faith.”
That gave a good bit of clarity to the situation. Ignoring my rebellious mind, I chose God’s path. It was much more difficult than mine. I had to get Him to help me many more times than that path would have required. But I knew I hadn’t made a hypocrite of myself before God and that was important.
As it turns out, I was right. God’s way has proven far better than my own. Now when I meet the forks of life and find myself with a similar choice, I rejoice in the chance to again prove to God that I trust Him and will stake my future on Him. I will jump off a cliff if asked to, without looking back, because I know Him and know He has my best interests in mind and is trustworthy.
12 comments:
First, Happy Birthday!
Second, Thumbs Up!
Third, I think that the ability to just let go and trust in God is one of the hardest things to come to terms with in the Christian life, and bravo for doing that! I see those godly decisions at work daily in your life. Keep it up, and keep trusting God more and more!
Happy birthday!
This reminds me a lot of what Garrett said a few weeks ago on Sunday night. God's love for us does what's best for us, not the thing we're most comfortable with, not the thing that we ourselves are planning (though the two can coincide), not any of the above. His love is expressed through our obedience in following his ways, since they are best.
And when you make it through a really hard bike trail, it's usually more rewarding. :)
Haha this is Christa, not Brandon.
That makes more sense, I was surprised to see Brandon's name show up.
Happy Birthday and/or Many Happy Returns of the Day to you!
Golly. I think that the more growth you experience in your relationship with and your obedience to God, the harder it becomes to take the easy path. You start seeing how much more His path is better for you, and there's hardly any way for you to justify accepting "easy" anymore.
There's never a problem if you first ask Him where you need to go.
i found myself going through a similar situation. the uncharted path vs. the easy path. one path comes with insurance the other doesn't. with God's path you know he will take care of you. the other path has its reward in the here and now with insurance of heavenly reward or protection.
It is quite hard to die to ourselves but this is what God wants from us, complete and total obedience. When we tell Him "no!" from the beginning it gets so much harder to hear His voice the next time He speaks on that issue.
I am reminded by Jesus' cry in Mark 8: 17 "Do you still not see or understand? Are you hearts hardened?". God gives us what we need to make the decisions He puts before us, but we often don't exercise our faith muscle enough to learn how to make decisions out of faith. He is God and He will lead us, if we allow Him. He has better plans for us than we could have ever imagined.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Blake! I'm glad that you have started growing here! May God lead you in ways you've never dreamed of =)
There's something that keeps nagging though that says, "I want to do it my way." That rebellious spirit sometimes comes subtly through some of the attitudes and thoughts I have. I think there's a continual process of "putting to death" that old self.
it is amazing how much taking the hard path can make future decisions or struggles easier, for instance with the Every Man's Battle study :)
I've found it helpful to pull others in whenever I have a decision like that. A fairly basic example, was picking out my new office. I wanted the one that took the longest to get to, the furthest from the hallway and people. I asked you which I should take and you quickly and easily pointed to the one in plain view where I can see people and they can see me.
There's times where I get wrapped up in what I want to do and I might even know that there's a better alternate, but I need someone to push me to do it. A simple "why don't you do this?" or "try doing that" works wonders for me.
I like the idea of having a mindset of rejoicing in opportunities to forsake your own way in order to follow God's way. If God got you one of those for your birthday, that's one sweet present.
Thumbs up!
Dude, It's actually me! Stay off my account Christa! :-)
It's amazing to see how much your faith has grown and matured over the past few years. It's been an amazing thing to get to grow along side you and learn from you. Thanks for being willing to share the things God is teaching you.
The amazing thing is that not only does it benefit us to follow God's way, but when we do, He always blesses others through us. We tend to think in terms of what feels good and what feels bad, not only for ourselves but for those impacted by our decisions. But God's way is always best--for everyone. Thanks for sharing!
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