GRACE ANCHORED JOURNEY

Until now, I am still having a hard time making necessary adjustments with my new course of life. There are times that I wake up in the morning asking myself if this is just a lost dream or merely a hallucination. Should it be like that, then I would willingly wake up. But it is not. This is real. Though, my love and service for the Lord is (I know in myself is genuine) a joy and a desire, having this frail body is not giving me any excitement.

Last year, I had planned my 2018. I thought that I would find a better job. Maybe to study again to master the field that I was into. Everything was okay until almost the end of 2017. I have already shared how my sickness has caused me to take not just a detour but a new path.

As I wonder how things have changed so suddenly, the Lord reminds me a familiar passage – Proverbs 19:21

“There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”

I have so many plans. My friends and family knew that. And, I forgot that the Lord’s purpose and counsel will stand because I am a Christian and my life must be to honor Him who has given His life for me. I failed to acknowledge and include God in my ways. I still pray though. But I pray to inform God of my plans and not to ask Him if they are His plans for me. Thus, he lets me experience and see how this verse would apply for me to see how far I have gone away from Him.

Why did God change my plan?

When I was just starting to ponder all the things that were happening, the only question that I had is “why did God alter my plans?” I was thinking to myself, though I work in the secular world, I was still faithful to the church and to my ministry. I never missed church on Wednesdays and Sundays. I was serving faithfully in the ministries that He has entrusted to me. Then why?

While thinking all of these, I was dragged into the life of Joseph (my favorite character in the Bible). I am sure that being hated by his brothers is not something that he wanted. More so, being sold to slavery and eventually put in the prison for a crime that he did not commit were not the things that Joseph dreamed of. But in all of these unfortunate and unpleasant events in his life, he had never forgotten the Lord. Instead, he obeyed God’s plan in His life (Genesis 37 – 50) despite how seemingly impossible to see God in his pain. I believed that because of His faith, he tried to see God in every suffering that he went through. In the end, everything works together for his good (Romans 8:28). I wonder what would be his life if he relied on his emotions or situations. Maybe he has died miserably and never experienced being a ruler. Countless lives would not be saved from famine.

His life from prison to palace is such a great testimony on how the Lord orchestrates everything for our own good. It might not be so when we try to fathom it through our own finite minds.  At the end of Joseph’s life, the Lord was magnified. His life became a great testimony that God is a living God. He fulfilled his promise in him because he believed and his faith did not waver until he saw God’s deliverance.

Looking at Joseph’s life, I know that God has a different plan for me, too. As how the song goes,

“When God has another plan , walk on and just say yes

When God has another plan, be assured that He knows best

When all your dreams are shattered , rest in his sufficient grace

We don’t have to understand, when God has another plan”

I just need to walk on, trusting what he has said that “His thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are His ways my ways (Isaiah 55:8). All I know is that the Lord knows exactly what He is doing. His plans is for my peace, to give me an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11). I must put my faith into it and expect that the best is yet to come.

Though, I still could not see His plan, His Word gives me assurance that He knows all my pains and heartaches. He still cares for me.

It is my prayer that I could be like Joseph clothed with humility, faith, obedience, kindness, and patience to wait on Him.

I don’t really need to know His plans for me now. I just have to obey. As the days pass by, His goodness and grace make me understand why He has another plan for me. These experiences that I am going through slowly unveil His purpose and will for my life.

Is the Lord changing your plans? Do you feel that God is nowhere to be found as if He is so distant? Trust His Word. (Hebrews 13:5) (Jeremiah 29:11)

Do you not understand what is going through your life? Keep walking by His grace. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Do you feel hopeless? Rest and hope in Him. (Psalm 33:4)

Every struggle that we encounter draws us closer to God (if we keep ourselves in His will).