I can not believe that we are almost into the last quarter of this year !!! I don’t know about y’all but this year has been TIRING !! I actually just received some more bad news recently that threw me off guard and almost snatched up all the little hope I had left in 2020. I must admit I felt like I was just getting the hang of 2020 and then BOOM !!! However, I must say 2020 has caused me to build more of a willingness to surrender to God and His plans. With that being said, I'm sure we all have faced so much opposition and loss throughout this year. It's like all the control WE THOUGHT WE HAD flew right out the window in 2020. After thinking about all this had me come to this blog post I wrote in 2018 and then the Holy Spirit led me to post on my new blog so here it is :
What happens when things don’t go according to plan ??
What happens when you don’t accomplish all the things on your to do lists ?? .................…or
What happens when you don’t meet that deadline that you had set to meet at a certain date ??
Welll sorryyy to break it to you but sometimes ..LIFE HAPPENS !!
Unfortunately, there will be some things or events that will happen in our lives that are out of our control no matter how much we may try to prevent things from getting out of order or follow the schedule. I remember in April on a Thursday , before Good Friday, my school had an Easter Egg Hunt for the teachers. (I know it sounds weird but follow me here.) They hid all these little paper eggs around the school, and each egg had a number written on it that was connected to a certain prize.
For instance 1 = bag of candy or 3 = lunch on them.. etc. Now the funny thing is you don’t know what your going to get until you turn the egg in, and this is what I did not like about the game. It’s funny because I’m always telling my students “You get what you get and don’t throw a fit”, but here I was doing the exact opposite. Then I began asking my coworkers that already turned in their eggs, “What did they get ?”. I was already trying to figure out what was already out there before I even went egg hunting lol. After hearing about all the eggs, I knew exactly which ones I wanted.
Then it was time for me to go egg hunting and I kept getting disappointed because I was unable to find the eggs of my choice. I even got some students to help me lol !!! I was not playing about these eggs at all ya’ll !! Anyways, by the time my planning period was over, I still did not find the eggs that I desired to have so I was a little bummed. My co-workers encouraged me to keep searching until you find the one you want. As the day passed, it was time for lunch and I honestly was focused on eating at this point and over finding any eggs. Now I am someone whom hardly drinks sodas but today I decided I’m going to get me a soda. Then, I walked up to the soda machine and … guess what I see …. AN EGG with the number 9 written on it !! I was too thrilled because this is the egg I wanted and it was blended well on that soda machine lol !!! Then it hit me, it was meant for me to get this egg all along !! As soon as I decided to relax, it was like WHOMP there it is !! I did all this searching, trying to research the prizes for each egg, and stressing to only realize it was part of the plan to find the egg I desired from the jump !!! Then I started thinking …. ………
How many times do we take matters into our own hands ??……
How many times we over stress ourselves because we try to figure things out on our own ??
How many times do we create alternative plans or try to intervene because we have a hard time waiting on God ?
If you ask me …. I’ve done this quite a few times !! So in this blog I will be talking about what to do when life becomes out of our control, and more so how to enjoy the ride while LIFE HAPPENS. I will be focusing on three points that I will call the Three R’s : Remain calm through prayer, Remember who’s in ultimate control, and Restrain from taking control
1. Remain Calm through Prayer
I will say from March up to now have been really rough months for me. I was being pulled in so many different directions and things kept happening that were definitely out of my control. As I mentioned earlier, I am currently in grad school and working as an intern. Now in early March, my grad school decided to remove all the interns that were at my internship site at the time due to the agency not following certain policies. Now here is something that was out of my control and I was stressing over the outcome. My mind immediately went into thoughts of “Where I’m suppose to go ?” …. “Did I do something wrong ??” …. “ Am I going to graduate on time ?” Then something in me told me to STOP !!!! I was adding unecessary stress to my life that I did not need by allowing my mind to wander. All I could honestly do in that situation was WAIT ON GOD and PRAY. As the weeks passed for me to find another internship, I prayed my way back to peace. I prayed consistently every morning in order to keep myself guarded from doubts and worries to seep in. I had to pray even when I didn’t feel like it because prayer is something I needed to get through each day. Prayer is what helped keep my mind at peace with that situation until I reached the victory God had set up for me ! On the other side of that victory, I was able to intern at one of my dream internships, and the crazier thing is that this agency usually does not accept evening/weekend interns but for me they made an exception and were willing to work with my schedule. Once, the agency told me this it made me realize how much God was behind all this after all and I was over here allowing myself to stress for nothing.
2. Remember Who’s in Ultimate Control
Now with this same story that gave me a wake up call on how less stressful it can be to wait on God. It also made me think about the importance as followers of Jesus Christ to constantly remind ourselves who OUR GOD is. We should know that He knows the beginning and the end of the battles we’re facing (Revelation 22:13). We should know if we ask for wisdom, then He will provide it to those who ask for it (James 1:5). We should know that no word from Him shall never fail (Luke 1:37) . We should know that He will establish our steps despite how our humanistic nature tries to plan it ( Proverbs 16:9). But in order to rest in God’s character and trust in His plan we must develop an intimate relationship with him.
Answer this question: Would you let any random person drive YOUR car ??
I’m sure you wouldn’t. I know I only let my close loved ones or family members drive my car. I also know that if I never rode with you than you definitely not about to lead my way. With all this in mind, why is it so hard for us to let God drive us around ?? When I’m in the passenger seat with someone driving I just ride, I don’t try to get in their way or tell them how to drive. I just sit back, have great conversation, jam to the music, and enjoy the ride. So this should be the same concept when it comes to our God !! If you want to enjoy the ride we must KNOW the one whose in the driver’s seat in order to enjoy where we are going. We should not be confused or unsure of where we are going because our GOD is not the author of confusion. It is important to remind ourselves of God’s nature during stressful situations that can sometimes cause us to form lies in our heads. For instance, my God told me that I was going to “graduate in December” then that meant I am going to graduate in December !! Although, things happened that tried to make that promise not look so promising, I had to remind myself of the TRUTH that my God gave me !! Lies can lead us to perform unnecessary actions that didn’t need to happen in the first place. But if we truly know God, when LIFE HAPPENS, things should not cause our mind to become all over the place. This is why it is so important to read and meditate on our word day and night in order to get to know God and build a relationship with HIM.
3. Restrain from Taking Control
Now, going back to being in the passenger seat. I will admit when my mom drives my car sometimes it makes me a little nervous. I will admit that certain things she does when she drives, are not the same things I would do as I drive. At times it even makes me want to just drive all together. It also causes me to complain or say things like:
“Could you speed up ?? “
“Why we driving so slow ?? “
You sure you know what you doing ??
......And the funny thing is I do this to God sometimes. I question what He is doing because of the wait or because bad things start happening or because I just get frustrated. But I have to constantly remind myself it’s not my job to take control ! And not taking control is hard for me to do sometimes! God is the one driving and I have to literally learn how to enjoy the ride. I will not get to my destination any sooner if I’m complaining or worrying so why not just sit, trust, and praise God for what he’s doing along the way! If anything it helps make the trip less frustrating.
With all that has been said it is important to know and trust God. Know his word and the promises He’s spoken over your life. The more we know God's nature, the less we will stress. Lastly, it’s not about knowing the end but focusing on the God you know in that moment during times of trouble until you get to the end.
Some questions to leave you with:
What areas in your life do you tend to take control in ??
Are you going to God first before making decisions ?
What thing/area in your life are you having a hard time trusting God with ?
Here are some great scriptures to meditate on while trusting and waiting on God during trying times :
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”
Proverbs 3:5
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:34
“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
James 1:4
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
This concludes another blog post and pray this blog touched or inspired you in some way.
Until next time !!!
With Love,
Crissy Roe
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