Confronting a Different Path
Throughout our lives, we make lots of plans, from big life changing ones to little everyday ones. Some people are amazing planners. I think every adult friendship group needs a planner; otherwise, we never actually get around to meeting up!
In our house, holidays are planned well in advance. The excitement builds as the details of what everyone wants to do are added in.
We can make great plans, meticulously planning to the tiniest detail. However, we are not in control of everything. There are a million different ways for things not to go as we hoped. What happens then when everything changes? What if you have to walk a different path from the one you had planned?
Sometimes these changes are relatively small, like not being able to go out to lunch because of a stomach bug or waiting a week for the plumber to fix the heater. While these can cause frustration, we can generally cope with small changes.
But there can also be massive changes to our plans, like a husband deciding he wants a divorce, being told “It’s cancer”, a natural disaster destroying your home, or hearing “We can’t find the baby’s heartbeat.” These are heart breaking changes making our futures completely different from what we had planned.
When everything feels shaken, where can we stand? The famous hymn, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less reminds us:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
We need to remember that God is sovereign over everything, everywhere, and everyone. The Lord is working out His plans and purposes even when we cannot see it or have a different way in mind.
There have been times when I have prayed and told God what I want Him to do! I am ashamed to say my prayer has been for my will to be done rather than His. The Lord has patiently shown me the error of my ways.
His ways are greater. He knows the beginning from the end. He holds all things together. He is the One who was and is and is to come! When I remember God’s greatness and my littleness (see James 4:13-15), I realize what a massive error it is to think I could know better than Him.
Trusting God Through a Different Path
Proverbs 16 verse 9 describes our lives as being like a journey we are on with God. We can plan to go here and there, but events work out as intended by God.
My plans are so often for my comfort or the comfort of those I love. God is interested in greater things, like the building of His kingdom and church. He is interested in our hearts (verse 1), our motives (verse 2), and our character (verses 5-8) as He seeks to transform us and use us to draw others to Himself.
God’s desire is for us to be women who display faithful, loyal love toward Him in both the good and difficult days. There is no circumstance in which He won’t lead and guide us…even in the valley of the shadow of death (see Psalm 23).
Our world can be turned upside down in a heartbeat. We can lament, “God, I can’t see what you are doing in this.”
Yet as we remember who directs our steps, what He has done for us in the past, and how He has loved us, we are able to trust Him. This trust extends to the difficult seasons of life and the seasons where we may not be rescued from the hardship we are facing.
Then we can say “Lord, I trust you even here, even when I don’t understand, and even when the road ahead fills me with dread. I trust you to guide my steps. I will keep following you. Not my will but yours be done!”
Walking Faithfully on a Different Path
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! I strengthen you — yes, I help you — yes, I uphold you with my victorious right hand!”
– Isaiah 41:10
I am sure there are people you can think of who have amazed and encouraged you when you have seen how God has sustained them. Their faithful witness has pointed you and others to the Rock of our salvation. My Granny often said, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future, and He holds my hand.”
I can’t control everything in my life, but my life is not out of God’s control. Wonderfully, my life is safely held within God’s hands. The One who gave me life can be trusted to lead me through each day He gives me on earth.
Heavenly Father, I praise you as you are my refuge and strength. You are an ever present help in times of trouble. Help me to trust you, especially when the road ahead is unknown and difficult. When I have to walk a different path to the one I’d planned, O Lord, keep me from wandering off. Hold me fast with your victorious right hand. With all my heart I want to follow in your footsteps. Amen.
