Ordered Steps and Plans


No week looks the same. This past week Kathy was out of the office.  Kathy and Pastor Ralph were preaching at a revival in another part of the state and then had grandkids. By Kathy being gone I was able to spend time learning from Pastor Josh and Pastor Dylan.

Pastor Josh gave me some tasks to do like organizing videos with object lessons. After watching the videos, I have been amazed at how often the object lessons I watched have come to my own mind.

From Pastor Dylan, the impact of the week was going to youth group to see Pastor Dylan lead the youth. While being in the youth group on Wednesday night I felt the most authentic altar call in my time at Lighthouse. I found myself moving to the altar by the Holy Spirit rather than just obedience. As I watched teens pour out their hearts and cry out to God, I felt my heart melt before God. If they could get real with God in such raw and vulnerable ways then so could I. Pastor Dylan kept asking me if I was all right after youth group and I told him I loved every minute of it.

Pastor Josh and his wife, Kristin, have been a special highlight as we have shared meals four times and gone to the zoo together. We played Settlers of Catan and watched some television shows together. I felt welcomed into their family. Pastor Josh commented this week on how there is this strong connection I have with his family. He has no idea how much I have prayed about the dynamics asking God to move and help me love them well. 

Regardless of the amount of prayer it does feel as if I am building a little community here. I am loving the office dynamics and friendships God is building. 

This past Friday Kathy and I did get some time to talk on the way to and from the zoo. Kathy said she wants to challenge me by keeping at me and asking for my five-year plan or my dream job. The result usually leaves me feeling confused and frustrated. 

While I appreciate the sentiment to think beyond this time in Richmond, I feel more like an Abram of Genesis 12:1 than a Joseph filled with dreams of his future. God gave Joseph dreams of what his future would look like. How to get the dreams to be a reality may have been fuzzier than I think Joseph would have liked, but he had a general sense of what his life would look like one day. Abram on the other had was told to leave the land he knew and follow God to the land God would show him. He did not know where that land would be, just to obey God immediately.

There is no doubt that I believe Jeremiah 29:11 about God having plans for me. However, I am not sure what those plans even look like. My vision of a future has been fuzzy. The only thing I know for certain is I want to be following God more closely and better than I did before.

I do not know if I have ever really known what the plans for my life will look like. At twelve is when I remember being called to serve in full time ministry. Beyond that call I have tried to be faithful in pursuing what God places before me. When I think now what, God has provided a plan. In May I had no idea what I would be doing this fall, but here I am in Richmond having met a couple in Egypt.

Often, I have heard from my Bible study teacher if your goal is nothing you will hit it every time. In other words, with no plans you will be 100% successful, but you will never move beyond where you are without goals. I have written goals for programs and events. When it comes to my life, goals feel so constricting to what I want verses what I sense God wants.

Kathy has been quoting the verse Proverbs 16:9, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” My counterbalance to it is Psalm 33:10, “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever; the plans of God stand forever.” Personally, I want God’s plans that stand forever. I want God to establish my steps but also my plans.

God had plans for Joseph and Abram. He ordered their steps. I'm pretty sure neither Joseph nor Abram planned the lives they had. Joseph would not have planned to go to prison and be forgotten or sold into slavery by His brothers. Abram probably would not have planned to have a son at 100. God made the plans. He ordered their steps. What Joseph and Abram did was stay faithful to God. They trusted in God’s character to do what He says He will do.

The speaker at Vital said faith is a result of an encounter with God. Trust is a result of God’s reputation. I am staking my future on God’s reputation of searching the earth to and fro to strengthen those who lives are fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Here's to following God’s lead by trusting Him.   

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