Surrendering

"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. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. " Jeremiah 29:11-13


What was that I wrote yesterday about just the right verse jumping out of the Bible at me? Lol. I am a take charge sort of person. I am not the first person to volunteer to take the charge, but if a task is presented to me or I am asked to do something, I'll run with it as far as I can take it. I also usually follow through on the task to the absolute best of my ability. So when something changes here at home, when we find ourselves moving in a different direction, I take that up almost immediately. I think about the last time we decided it was time to move. The day we made the decision, and before we'd even found a new home or gave our notice, I was already beginning to pack things up and make those all-important lists. Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm already planning the meal in my head. I am a planner, and I love it when a plan comes together.

Except that my plans are not always the same as God's plans. When Andy first took his job working for a company out of another town 45 minutes away, I decided instantly that one of the things that meant was that we needed to move to that little community. So I started looking up things online about that community. Obviously, we never moved there. God's plans were for us to stay right where he'd planted us. Even this past week, we went and checked out a church 30 minutes away. Before we even went, I had it half in my mind to be sure and check out the community we were in, because it may be God's will that we move to that community. I'm just so quick to jump the gun sometimes! I think that part of me is just so willing to do whatever God asks that I look for the possibilities before they even present themselves.

I'm starting to think though, that I most likely have no idea what God has in store for us. And what I need to do more than anything is use that patience that we've been learning. I just have such a natural sense of urgency, that when something needs to be done, it needs to be done yesterday. (Well, unless we're talking about housework, then I seem to be able to let that slide from time to time.) But God knows what He has planned for us, and He'll share that with us when the time is right. I need to trust that His timing will be best, and I just need to spend more time seeking Him in the meantime, learning more each and every day how to trust.

And actually, this means a second thing to me too. For me, it's much more than learning to trust in God, it's also learning to trust my husband. It wasn't too long ago that he was the baby Christian and I was the more mature Christian, and many of the decisions we made were based on a lot of what I had learned from the Bible or from God. In the last few years though, my husband has grown 100-fold in his walk with God, and I need to trust that. I need to trust that when he says that he really feels God speaking to Him, that it is what it is. I need to remember that God has placed my husband at the head of this household and that God will guide him in the important decisions we need to make. That doesn't mean that I can't question him or discuss matters with him, but it does mean that I need to be more careful about discarding some of the things that he says.

Reading this verse today is so exciting. Just look at it again! "For I know the plans I have for you!" And that comes straight from God Himself. Even better, look at the next part "plans to prosper you and not to harm you." I'm going to hold God to that one, as well as the next part "plans to give you hope and a future." I'm looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for us, and for our children. But until it is time for the future to be the now, I will settle for being patient and seeking. Otherwise I will drive myself batty.