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ost people like to think that they’re in control of their lives. The hard truth is that we’re not in as much control as we’d like to believe. Sometimes life is hard. We struggle. Things don’t go how we plan. Though we can’t always control our circumstances, we CAN learn to trust God’s plan for our lives.
Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not lean on your understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6
My dad always explained this verse to mean that, as we look back, everything that we’ve been through will make sense, because God always has a plan. I can already see this in my life and our marriage.
When we first were married, Adam had only started a job the month before our wedding, after a very long search. We were so thankful for this but knew that money would be tight. We were living in Silicon Valley, one of the most expensive places in the country, on very little. Thankfully, we had been blessed with a four-bedroom rental house for about the cost of a studio and had just enough money to get by. I was a nanny at the time and absolutely hated my job. I was thankful it was paying the bills, but my employer was not the nicest person to work for and one of the kids was pretty difficult. I was constantly being walked all over and felt worthless.
I had applied for many other jobs with no response. I remember tears streaming down my face every day that I had to get in my car and drive to a job where I felt beaten down. I was frustrated with God for not providing a way out–for keeping me in a job that I hated. Then my entire world came crashing down.
I left Adam (only 5 months after we got married) after I realized that our marriage was in trouble and I didn’t feel safe.
Once I came back, I prayed that God would provide a way for me to leave my job. Within a month, God provided a way out. The new job was in a completely different field, and I was making almost double what I made as a nanny. The extra money that we received with my new position more than covered our counseling sessions with some extra to give us a small amount of breathing room as we were fixing our broken marriage. That would never have happened without God leading the way.
God absolutely knew what he was doing and had His hand over us.
God Has STRATEGIC Timing
This can be so hard to believe in the hard moments, but this is a vital thing to know about God.
Looking back, I can see that God has AMAZING timing. It wasn’t fun, but He had a plan the entire time. Though I doubt and worry, He has never forgotten me. And He never will.
I know that if God had given me a new job prior to me leaving Adam, that the job would have distracted me from our problems and that it would have hindered me from seeing the changes that needed to happen. The job would have acted as a band-aid when our marriage needed much more attention. I’m so thankful that God didn’t give me a job until after we started to get help for our marriage. It scares me to think what would have happened if I had been able to ignore our issues for any longer than I had. When I look back at His provision and incredible timing, I can see just how much He cares about me.
Do you ever have moments where you feel as if God has forgotten you or that you are alone? God is all-knowing and good, but in our eyes we can sometimes lose sight of His purpose.
Trusting God in the midst of what we don’t understand is difficult. But ultimately, God knows best and He loves us more than we can comprehend.
In these situations, be looking for ways that God may be teaching you, where He may want to work in your heart, or where He may be leading you to a different place. When you doubt, look back to where God has worked in your life and where He has provided in amazing ways.
Question: Where has God provided for you in the past? Are you in a difficult season today? Let us know in the comments below…
