What’s your story?
What are the events in your life that have brought you to where you are today?
And who is writing your story?
Are you trying to write your own story? The way you want it? Our culture tells us that this is what we should do. Write your own destiny. Be whoever you want to be. Become whatever you want.
This sounds great, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t we shed the expectations of others and be our own person? Well, yes… but…
That’s a big BUT!
If we put our hope and trust in the LORD, then your life is not your own. When we put our faith in Jesus, we give Him our lives, that includes our story. Everything about who we are.
This brings great comfort to me, not fear or frustration. This brings freedom, true freedom. Free to be who HE wants me to be, who He made me to be. T there is no greater satisfaction than in knowing you are walking in His will. And when He works in our lives, He doesn’t stop!
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6 (NLT)
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith…” Hebrews 12:2 (NIV 84)
I love these verses. I love the image of Jesus sitting down at His ornate, heavenly desk and writing out all the twists and turns in
our lives and orchestrating them out in a way that is for our good (Romans 8:28) and His glory (Okay, maybe it doesn’t quite look that way literally, but let’s go with it metaphorically).
Some days it doesn’t seem like there is anyway any of the mess we are going through could be for His glory, let alone our good.
Yet that’s His promise.
It’s His mighty hand that guides us though life, that holds us when our world falls apart. He’s the one that uses these things to make us a little more like Him.
I’ve seen it in my own life. In college, I went through a tough experience, one that I’m going to tell you about at a later time (I’m just trying to figure out exactly how to tell the story in a way that will honor all those involved while giving God all the glory for how He used it in my life). Through this experience, when life as I knew it was falling apart, when the story I thought was being written for my life was being erased, God held me and refined my heart. As I look back I can see exactly how God is glorified through it and exactly how He is still working it together for my good. It is incredible.
But I couldn’t see that then. All I could do was trust that He could do it, and that in the end He would. When the world had gone dark around me, His light filled my soul, and I knew I wasn’t alone.
When we go through those dark days, when the world feels so cruel, rest in Him. Know that He is the one writing your story.
Sometimes we want to snatch the pen out of His hand and write it the way we think it should go, but we’d miss out on so much of His goodness if we did. We think we know better, but we can only see a tiny piece of the story. He is omniscient, all-knowing. He knows how this story ends. And if He knows the end, if He knows what will be for our good, shouldn’t we listen and obey Him? Trust that whatever we are going through He will work it out? If we want peace in our hearts, we must. We must lay it all down, leave it in His capable hands because He is the Author of our life story and worthy of our trust.