I remember when we were learning about God's timing and being warned about how often in our ministries we can get so "caught up" in accomplishing the work of God that we forget about...God. In our impassioned scramble to figure out what we 'need' to do next, what we 'need to fix', what we 'need to do' or 'need to become' to be better, to get it done, to "succeed for the Lord!"...we could easily forget exactly Who is doing the saving here. My teacher warned us that we can get so busy doing things for Him that we leave no time to spend with Him. And whenever we start doing things on our own without Him....yikes. Even ministries done "for God" (but without continual Holy Spirit guidance and revelation) can become burdens, heavy weights that we take upon ourselves and drag around in crazy, minimally effective and totally exhausting circles!!
I am slowly but surely realizing that this is true for ALL things in my life now. Whenever I try to accomplish anything without the direction and covering of the Holy Spirit, I run the risk of running in crazy circles around my own misguided understanding and so find myself exhausted, confused and very very tense! Instead of focusing upon God, I find myself focusing upon "me"--worrying about what "I" need to do, where "I" need to go, what "I" need to say, what pathway "I" need to take, which step "I" need to take next. I forget that my Creator resides powerfully--and patiently--within me, knowing fully in His All-Knowing-ness, the best method, time and place for everything I do. I forget that He already knows every intimate detail about me. I forget that, in fact, before I took my first breath, He already had a wonderful plan--a wonderful purpose--laid out for me!
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (Eph 2:4, NASB, emphasis added)
And when I finally get off (or fall off) my well-intentioned-but-still-oh-so-presumptuous high horse, I can lean on the other parts of God's unchanging nature: even if I have made bad decisions that have "set me back" or even if I have inadvertently (or willfully!) managed to block my view of Him with preoccupied views of "me, myself, and i", I know that in His All-Loving-ness and All-Powerful-ness He already has a plan to remedy my mess and get me back on course...He's just waiting for me to make the choice to turn back and follow Him! An experienced counselor once told me: "As a Christian, you can't be broken beyond God's creative ability to restore. For you, there is no such thing as irreparable damage!" It's what allows me to persevere in all things; in remembering the depth and the power of His love for me, I cannot help but be filled to the brim with hope and be given the strength to crawl on my knees back to Him!
So, as a child of an Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent God, it means that I am never at the mercy of things such as circumstance, fate, luck, or a negative event. Yes, I still realize that I will experience difficulties and I will journey through some very painful and trying times. But no matter how or why it occurs, it is comforting to know that way before life dealt me a hard-knuckled blow and landed me in a seemingly devastating situation, God ALREADY had a plan to heal and restore me...to redeem me out of the circumstances, always stronger, always closer, always wiser with and in Him! I just need to trust in His love for me, in His unchanging nature and purpose for me, and believe beyond everything else that:
"...God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Rom 8:28, NASB, emphasis added)
How much easier it would be to live my life if I could always remember that from the moment He first thought of me, He already had me totally covered!
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