Chapter 20! Lord, Help Me To Move Into the Future You Have For Me

Howdy girls! :) I'm missing everybody crowded on the couch right about now. Thank goodness small group starts back in a few weeks!

Here we go, the final chapter. I loved how the chapter last week was about learning God's will for our lives and this last one is about moving into the life He made us to live. Kinda goes hand in hand.

As I'm sitting here rereading and figuring out how to start this... it's funny, but this is what we just talked about in church. The first thing I highlighted was the sentence on the first page that says "That means you have no idea how great your future is." We are so totally clueless when it comes to God's plans! But we humans have a tendency to forget that. We forget that we're clueless. We forget that God's got a bigger picture. When we talked about Ruth in church, the pastor used this illustration: "You know when you take your kids to a crowded place? They're just so short, they see nothing but knees and wonder why you took them there in the first place. And you see this every time... the father will lift the kid on his shoulders. Why? To show his child that there's more to it than what he can see." Every once in a while, God 'lifts us on His shoulders' to show us while we have no idea what's in store for us, there's more to it than meets the eye, and He's got everything handled.

The thing is though, it doesn't happen automatically. God gave us free will, so here's a chance to use it. We do our part, He does His. What we can (and are actually commanded to) do is live God's way, and pray. Our life only works when we're living the way God tells us to in the Bible, so if we're not, then we're missing out. By praying about every aspect of our life, we're "investing in our future" (another phrase I underlined).

... girls, God's so clever. Really He is. Get this... so while His two instructions to us are supposed to  help us move into His future for us, they also protect us. I actually marked the phrase at the beginning of the sentence, "The devil's plan for your life cannot succeed as long as you are walking with God..." Another thing we forget. God's not the only one with a plan. Granted, God's is the best and the master plan of all plans, but Satan has a few ideas too. He wants to utterly destroy us by means of temptation and deceit. By praying and living God's way, there's no way the devil's plan for our lives will work out. Not even the shadow of a doubt.

So, to move into God's future for us, we have to live the way God intended us to live and pray. The last paragraph finishes that thought up by saying "God wants to do something great through you. If you are willing to say, 'Not my will, but yours be done, Lord' then He can use you." That's the key. We've gotta be willing. Remember that free will He blessed us with? Sometimes using that free will means being willing to let Him take the controls and letting Him handle everything. Jesus even did this in the Gardens of Gethsemane. He basically prayed and said if there's any other way to save these people, please, let's do that. But God, that's my will. Not my will, but Yours be done.

There's a song by FFH called Undone. The beginning of the chorus pretty much sums it up... "Come undone, surrender is stronger..." By surrendering to God and His plans, everything turns out.

Trust Him, girls. He's up to something. :)
Soli Deo Gloria! Love, Katie