“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV

(If you know me I have been hung up on these verses for awhile)

Plans

I’m a planner. I like to at least have a general plan on how the day, week, month and really if I’m honest how the rest of my life in general is  going to go. 

The Lord has been teaching me that things won’t always go according to my plan. Unfortunately it seems I’m a super slow learner. I have a tendency to dig my heels in and try to force the plan. Let’s compare that to a few stories in the Bible and see their responses. 

Jesus prays not His will, but the Father’s. Mary questioned Gabriel when he told her she would be the mother of Jesus. She asked “How will this be?”, but then surrendered as a servant of the Lord. Abraham never seemed to question, but Sarah thought she could help with the plan (please don’t let me be like Sarah). The apostle Paul didn’t have much choice, Noah built the boat which probably wasn’t on his to do list. Gideon was a hot mess, whined about his current situation and needed multiple confirmations.

(It’s me. I am Gideon 😢). You can probably list a few more. 

They may have questioned the plan, they may have needed confirmation, but they carried out the plan. They gave up what they thought life would look like and did what the Lord asked of them. 

Lord help me to follow these examples and do Your will and not mine. Help me to rejoice always and not be so dead set on things going my way, when Your way is so much better. 🙏🏻