Written October 2010, for the girls receiving God's Girls Newsletter, January 2011.
By Lady Theophilus
Dear Friends,
Although I keep thinking of things I’d like to share with you, the topic on my mind this morning is about the Lord’s will for us and how we respond to it. The part of His will I’d like to talk about is addressed in James 4:13-15: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” These verses remind me that I don’t really know what is in my future, so I shouldn’t brag or say “such-n-such is definitely going to happen”; but instead, I should leave all things in God’s hands. I’ll use some things that have happened to me to illustrate this point.
For a month or so, our family had been planning on and looking forward to a weekend in a mountain cabin that our babysitting family owns. The week we were planning to go was a crazy one, especially on Thursday when we were making food and getting ready to go and having other “normal-life” things to do as well. Well, on Thursday night we got an email from a friend whose father-in-law had passed away suddenly that day from a heart-attack. She was wondering if we could babysit their kids while she and her husband helped with funeral arrangements. We were going on a trip, how could we help?! Well, that night we prayed about the situation, and asked God to lead Daddy to know what we should do: go to the cabin or stay and help our friends.
It is in things like this that we have to hold our plans and wishes in open “hands”, so that God can take them if He wants. To demonstrate this concept, Mother handed Emily something and told Emily to hold it tightly in her hand and not let Mother take it from Em. “Ouch, that hurts,” Em said, as Mother pulled, trying to get the thing out of Emily’s grasp. “Yes, it does hurt when God wants to take a desire out of our ‘clutches’ and we won’t let go of it: when we refuse to hold it in open hands.” When we hold something loosely, we are willing for God to take it away or do what He pleases with it, and it doesn’t hurt so badly when He does, because it was already yielded to Him.
We have to be willing to let God have His way, by always leaving wishes, people (we can’t own our friends), and ourselves available for God to do with what He will. This goes for all things in life- big and small: whether we’re considering plans for a weekend, a holiday, our life, or our future health. I’m sure there are many experiences all of us could tell about, in which we didn’t experience what we had planned for, and felt either defeated and sad about it, or (because we had already given it to the Lord) we were happy in trusting His best plan for us.
I know from personal experience that the Devil likes to tempt us to disappointment when we don’t get our way: God treated me unfairly: how He didn’t let me do this, go there, or be in that place/situation/position… Those horrible thoughts are from the Devil and the sooner we realize that the better. When we have Jesus living in our hearts and want Him to be honored in our lives, we must reject this self-pity and surrender the matter to the Lord.
Another thing to remember is that most often in this time of our lives God’s will for days and events is shown though our parents- their wisdom and decisions for our family. The main thing we need to do is be submissive. Submission is shown through obedience and support. We can show through our attitudes that we trust our parents’ wisdom. As we grow older, we will have to make our own decisions. We can learn wisdom from our parents’ choices for us now (and the reasons they make those choices) and when we are older we can apply the things we have learned.
Does this mean we don’t make plans, have a schedule, or anything? No, God wants us to live our lives for Him, which includes much planning and carrying-out of plans; however we have to be flexible, willing for God to change our plans.
I remember a situation on one family vacation that didn’t turn out like I wanted it to, or as our family had planned. All of us Albertsons were planning to drive up to my aunt’s house, from my uncle’s house, and so we started on our way. Well, something went out on our van, and we were unable to continue our drive. I was very disappointed, as were most of the family, and even suggested borrowing our uncle’s van to be able to go… but the parents’ verdict was still “no”. I didn’t know why, or understand the problem, but I did want to go, more than I wanted to cheerfully submit to circumstances.
We don’t always know why God changes our course, as in this instance. Would something bad, like a car wreck, have happened to us if we had continued? (We can’t be superstitious about things like that, but rather we just have to trust and obey.) Or was it just a lack of maintaining the car (our carelessness)? I don’t know, but it was apparent that God had other plans for us at that time.
In conclusion, let me say this: in all of life we have to say, “If it is the Lord’s will we will do this or that,” and stay surrendered to His plan, even if it differs from ours.
“All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.”
- Fanny Crosby, blind hymnist
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