Trusting Where You Are

I shut my eyes. 
The darkness seems to close in again.
I remind myself of the Kingdom I fight for.


All this pain.. I wonder if I'll ever find my way. 
I wonder if my life could really change, at all. 
All this earth.. Could all that is lost ever be found? 
Could a garden come up from this ground, at all?
-"Beautiful Things"


How could it be God? Why must I wait?
Why is it never my time?
Why am I always waiting on my life to "take off"?
How come change has come for everybody else but I'm waiting here...still...by myself?


These are the things that Satan used to wound me and still uses.


 These are what he haunts me with every single time that I take my eyes off of God.  Even if for a moment I glance away, Satan shouts lies at me. 
I have to remember who I live for with every new day and whose will I follow for my life. 


I read this verse this morning and I was struck by truth.


"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18


Where you are right now is God's will for you.
Striving to emulate Christ and to walk in His ways, I am falling into step with Christ.  


There is a reason I have met the friends that I have-to inspire, encourage, and strengthen them in Christ.
There is a reason I was in the classes I was in-to meet the people I did, gain insight into the world, and be inspired to change it.
There is a reason I am not in a relationship with anybody right now because God is showing me that I can use this time to inspire and help others in their struggles.


I am striving to live out the love of Christ in deepening my friendships at Hope and in my life.  I am slowly realizing how Christ is shaping my life to follow Him and His will for me.  And that's greater than anything I could wish for my life right now.


Chapel this morning once again reminded me of who I am and what I have devoted myself to follow for the rest of my days.


I am a follow of Christ, one of many people of God.
We are the people of God.  
We have the privilege of serving Jesus, the beautiful Author of our lives and this world.
We have devoted our lives to following the will of an unseen King who is greater than anything this world could ever offer us.  


More beautiful and full of grace than our minds can possibly fathom, Jesus breathes life into our empty bodies and has given us hope and a future.  Carrying this healing truth we must quiet our restless souls and remember that in following Jesus we are exactly where we need to be if we continue following Him.


"For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him, according to the purpose of Him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory."-Ephesians 1:8-12

  

These are all a part of God's plan for this world and we have a part in His plan and His glorious will.


Disappointments, heartbreaks, lost love, closed doors.
Sitting with a new good friend of mine, I showed her a song entitled "This" by Darius Rucker which covered all of these things.  


"For every stoplight I didn't make
Every chance I did or I didn't take
All the nights I went too far
All the girls that broke my heart
All the doors that I had to close
All the things I knew but I didn't know
Thank God for all I missed
Cause it led me here to
This"


Like this song, we must recognize that all of the mishaps, chaos, heartbreaks, and rejection lead us into our futures where we'll be able to see the reasons.


You'll see why it didn't work out with that boy you were in love with and swore you'd marry when you meet your future husband and see he wasn't the right one for you after all because there was somebody God had written on your heart from the beginning.


You'll see why you got differed from that college to be led to a school you'd sworn off when you meet amazing people with beautiful hearts there to encourage and support you.


You'll see why you were put in certain classes when you meet certain people and gain insight into the brokenness of this world and what you can do to fix it.


You'll see why God allows darkness into your life so that you learn to fix your eyes steadily on Jesus to be the light that guides you away from the darkness.


He is the God who lights our darkness, unveils our eyes to see truth, and has blessed us with a hope worth so much more than this world.  


He is why we wait patiently in hope for our futures and for His coming. 
His perfect will in this world overpowers the doubts, the confusion, and the anxiety we are plagued with. Live to walk alongside Jesus and trusting His will becomes a part of who you and the hope we are filled with.  

Do not lose faith in God because you aren't at a place where you feel you want, need, or deeply desire to be.  He has a reason for you being right where you are and once you accept and embrace that, God can use you in more ways than you know.  All those who wisely choose to hope in Jesus must hold out faith for the richness of life, fulfillment, and joy that comes in serving a King even when you can't understand His plan.

We must learn for Him to have His way in our lives. 

And that is truly God's will...

believing in an unseen plan more beautiful and grand than our imagination can create.

"You never said the road would be easy But You said that You would never leave And You never promised that this life wasn't hard But You promised You'd take care of me So I'll stop searching for the answers I'll stop praying for an escape And I'll trust You God with where I am And believe that You will have Your way Just have Your way, just have Your way" -Britt Nicole ("Have Your Way")