Lessons Learned In The Waiting... Proverbs 19:21

Proverbs 19:21 says,

“There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.”

I am a planner. I love to be prepared. I don't naturally like surprises or changes. God knows this about me. He knows that I like knowing details. Before this year, I didn't fully understand what it meant to be flexible. I've learned that being flexible is thinking that you're going to do one thing and at the very last second, being told that something else completely different needs to be done, and then being 100% okay with that no matter what changes that brings to your plans. This is something that He has been teaching me this year and I know that it is to prepare me for the future. You see, I planned my future. I've made plans for myself tons of times. I'm gonna be a masseuse. I'm going to be a counselor. I'm going to college. I'm going to be married by 22. I'm going to Africa. I plan and God laughs. I can imagine Him saying, “Doesn't she know by now that my plans are so much greater than anything she can ever imagine?”

Isaiah 55:8-9 says,

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

But still I plan. The past few months have been difficult because I can't plan. I don't know exactly what is happening after this program. I can't answer questions about the future with anything more than, I'm really not sure what is happening but I know that the Lord is in control. I know that He has placed a calling on my heart and I'm not sure what the future looks like but I know for sure that He has a plan. God is teaching me to trust Him. There are certain burdens and desires that have been placed on my heart just recently but I don't know when those things will happen. And I'm learning to be content in waiting. I know that God is good and that He has placed desires in my heart and He will not withhold these things from me when I am walking in His way.

Psalm 84:11 says,

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

A friend of mine was sharing something with us the other day that really stuck out to me. God gives us promises. Sometimes we can see those promises and so we do things to make the promise come to be sooner than God's plans because we get impatient. “I can see it so I must be able to have it!” When I learn to wait on the Lord and His timing, I learn to focus on the here and now and I learn so much more than when I am looking so far ahead into the future. God has lessons to teach me here and now. He has things He wants me to learn so that I can be ready for the future that He has planned for me.

My application this week is to submit my plans to the Lord. Whenever I start thinking too far into the future, I will give those thoughts to the Lord and ask Him what He wants me to learn right now in the waiting.