Make Him Wait

I just came across this song called "Make Him Wait" by Abby Anderson.

I listened to it and my heart broke.

See, in my past, I have had relationships with guys that were not healthy and were not good. There are things I wish I could take back. Things I wish I had done differently, said differently... even ways I wish I had acted differently.

This song reminded me how important it is to not rush everything. I am always rushing through everything, trying to get to the next thing. But...

Life can't be rushed. There is nothing we can force. Life is like a puzzle, and the pieces just come together eventually. You can force a piece to fit, but in the end, something won't be right.

Same in relationships.

Don't try to force something to work together.

Don't try to force something to "fit" if it doesn't. Trust me, I'm thankful my parents stopped me from trying to force something to fit about a year ago. In the end, something wouldn't have been quite right. I can see that now, but couldn't see it then.

I'm thankful that part of my puzzle fell apart. Because I know God has a better plan of how that part of the puzzle is going to come together.

He will make it come together, and it will be beautiful. I just need to give Him all the pieces, and let Him be in control of it.

Do you have something in your life that you just want to control and make happen? Why not join me and just hand over all the pieces to the Master of all puzzles?

He really does know how to make the puzzle come together beautifully.

Plans

I love planning. I like having an idea of what is going to happen. I plan in my day to day life, and I especially try to plan ahead for the future. And I had a plan. When that plan backfired, I re-grouped and adjusted my plan. And you can guess what happened...

Dang, have my plans for my future crashed and crumbled around me. And went up in a big pile of smoke, leaving me feeling a little crispy. (IDK why I just had a cartoon scene just flash through my mind, but okay lol)

The places I thought I would be... the things I thought I would be doing... now I have realized that those things won't be. At least not in the time-table I had set.

See this verse Jeremiah 29:11 started taking over my thinking. "For I know the plans I have for you... plans for good and not for evil... to give you a future and a hope."

I've been trying to live by that verse. But it is NOT easy.

Lately, I've been slipping back into my desire to plan and *ahem* control my life.

HA. HA. (That's what God says.)

He knows just how well this has worked for me before.

Today, after a weekend of some major pouting, He threw a couple verses at me.

"Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you." - Psalm 37:4-5

As if that wasn't enough...

"The Lord says, 'I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.'" -Psalm 32:8

Ok… think I got the point.

• Gotta delight in the Lord
• Gotta commit it all to Him
• Gotta trust Him
• Gotta let Him guide and advise

Okay, those are easy to say, hard to do. But why on earth should I do them?

See, God knows my desires better than I do. He knows how I long to feel appreciated and loved. He knows how I long to someday have a family (ain't ready for kiddos yet LOL, I like my sleep), how I long to have a good job, how I long to do what's right, ETC. He knows it better than I do.

So why the heck is it so hard to trust Him with it?

Probably pride. I want to plan it. I want to do it. I don't want to lean on anyone else to figure it out for me. I don't want to give up control.

>>>>CONTROL<<<<

Ugh. I have to give up control?!? SERIOUSLY!?!?!?

Take it from me... giving up control is hard. It might suck at first and feel like nothing is going right. But God's got a plan.

I've experienced it before. When I give up control and I trust, great things happen.

Have I done it all the time?

Heck no.

Have I done it well?

Hahahhahahah NOPE.

But in the end, if I finally give something up, God will work it all out for the best.

Got something you need to give up control over and trust God with? A situation at school? At work? Some type of relationship? Money? Good news is whatever it is, if you pray and ask God to help you, He will. But you have to be sincere. Don't forget that part. ;)

Here's a little prayer that might help get you started:

God, thank you that you love me and care about all the details of my life. Thank you that you are always there and know things I could never know. Thank you for having everything under control so I don't have to worry about ___________________ anymore. Help me to trust you with it, and let it go. I know You'll work it out better than I could anyways. Thanks Lord. In Jesus' Name, Amen

I hope this helped and encouraged someone.

Remember:

• Give up control.
• Give your desires to the Lord.
• Commit your life to Him and all you do in it.
• Trust that He will guide and watch over you and advise you in the way you need to go.

Trusting... Well... Trying

Trust.

Such a simple word, but a hard action.

People say, "oh, you can trust me." You soon find out whether you can or not.

You trust yourself to make decisions everyday. Everything, great or small, you trust you can make the right decision. Everything from deciding what shirt and shoes you want to wear to how you want to spend your time and money. But there are some things we don't know if we will make the right decision, so we ask opinions and trust others to give us some good advice. I'm talking decisions like... college.... relationships...  moving...

Sometimes we trust the wrong people. We take their advice and trust them when we really shouldn't.
There is one Person Who we can actually trust, who will make the right decision every time.

That's Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."

I don't know about you, but when I read that, I feel a tremendous amount of pressure that was on my shoulders go away.

It isn't up to me.

I'm not alone to make these decisions.

I can go to Jesus and ask Him, "Hey, what should I do here?"

I can look to the Bible, read it, and see what I can do in certain situations.

Trust.

Trust God with your plans.

I'm a control freak. I love making plans and figuring things out. When I was a teenager, I had a plan for my whole life. I was going to be engaged by this time, have my degree by this time, married by this time, have children by this time, own a house by this time, etc. etc. etc.

Oddly enough, every plan I made got flipped upside down.

At the time, it was so disappointing. Looking back now... I am so glad my plans didn't work out. Cuz God had much better ones, and I am just beginning to understand what those plans look like.

Proverbs 16 has some stuff to say about plans....

"We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer." (verse 1)

"Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed." (verse 3)

God has the best plans in mind for us. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to do well. He has our best in mind.

God is the one person we can trust. Though it may seem like life is out of control, that God is nowhere to be found, He is right there beside you, trying to help you, if you'd just let Him.

Trust Him.

Trust Him with it all. Your dreams... your desires... your life.

Trust Him to help you make the right decisions.

Find out what He wants for you and for your life by:

1. Reading the Bible - lots of good info in there to show you how to live, and what God wants of you.

2. Praying - prayer is a two-way conversation. I often forget that. God is there to listen to you, and there will be times He will want to talk to you too. You just have to listen.

God knows all our dreams and our desires. Psalm 38:9 says "You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh."

God knows more about us and our lives than we or anyone else could ever know. Let's learn to trust Him with our lives and everything in our lives. It'll make things easier.

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You." - Isaiah 26:3 -

Beautiful Things

Beautiful things happen when you are obedient to God.

I made a decision about a month ago that was difficult. I felt like I was basically giving up everything.

I knew what God had asked me to do, so I did it (even though it took a while).

After a while, God showed me a new direction I needed to take.

So, I trusted. I trusted He had something good in store.

Believe me, He did.

I'm continuing to be blown away by what God is doing in my life.

And all it took was one step of faith.

Then another.

And another.

And... well you get the picture.

Sometimes it's hard to trust and be obedient when you think you know what is best.

Been there, dealt with that.

But because I have trusted God, I have had amazing blessings in my life that I could never have dreamed of a month ago.

A verse has stuck out to me a lot lately. For my birthday, my grandparents gave me a necklace with a Scripture on it... Jeremiah 29:11.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

I've been holding on to that verse for dear life lately. I am trusting that God has amazing plans and I'm getting to see what He is doing in my life, and it is just amazing.

Don't waste time like I did. You don't have to. Decide now that you are going to trust God and be obedient to what He asks. Don't fight Him. If He is asking for your heart and life to be His, and asking you to follow Him no matter what, just pray. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to come and be with you and live with you, teaching you how to follow Him well and love Him well.

If He is asking you to do something small, just do it. It may be hard in the moment, but trust me friend, blessings will come from it.

God loves you and has your best at heart. Why not trust in His plan and let the pressure off yourself?