Following God's Plan
I love to do any kind of needlepoint but especially Cross Stitch. When I decide on a pattern I would like to stitch and then open the package to see the pattern or steps to complete to get to the final design, I often think there is no way this pattern will turn into the final product I want. It all looks so strange and nothing like the picture on the front of the package.
But I find that if I stick to the pattern and follow the instructions, it will always turn out like the picture. Why; because I followed the necessary steps needed to make that happen. It’s interesting to me how our life can be like that. We have a plan or goal we set out to accomplish that we believe God has given us, and during the journey his instructions may seem so random.
We think how could doing this or going there or forgiving them be a part of the plan?
During the journey we tend to look at the backside of the tapestry of our life that God is weaving and all we see it a hodgepodge of tangled thread that looks nothing like the finished product we envisioned. But if we would trust the pattern makers instructions, eventually we would see the beautiful end result he is making.
Paul states in Romans 8:28 AMP “We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.” Inevitably along the way we will take a wrong turn or decide we don’t like the latest instruction from God; you know we all do it…what happens when we mess the instructions up?
The good news is we can’t mess the pattern up! Paul shows us that the pattern maker himself uses ALL things; his original plan, our mistakes, our wanderings all of it and he works them into the plan and fits it all together for our good because we love him and are called to his purposes! I love that! There is not a plan B with God. It’s always Plan A because before the foundations of the world God knew us and already saw every mistake we would ever make. He knew every word that would come out of our mouths before we said them. He knew we would step in it and decided by his grace to fit it into his plan for our good. That is crazy amazing!
Nothing we do is ever wasted. He uses it all. All of our mistakes and failures are recycled into good through his grace.Grace is the granting of a favor, divine assistance, immunity or exemption, and mercy or clemency. We receive grace for our mistakes and blunders in walking out the plan or pattern given to us. He then uses the mistakes to teach us something and also somehow fits it into the plan and makes it all work. Goodness….
As I’ve endeavored to follow God’s plan for my life, I know for certain that I’ve missed turns and heard his instructions incorrectly along the way. We can hear things through our own skewed filters and get it wrong at times. Other people’s decisions for us can feel like they are totally off plan too. We encounter issues when we try to see now how our jumbled mess of thread can possibly turn out like the pattern looks. That will only become clear in the future. Our job isn’t to figure out how to fix anything our job is to trust God to fit it all into his plan for our good. We have a part to play and God has a part. We cannot do his part and he will not do our part.
When we don’t understand the twists and turns along the way we just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other until we arrive. Sometimes we have to take a few steps backwards to go forward. An important question we should ask when we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque is God, how do I proceed now? There may be another step to take at this point, but God may take a season to teach us some things. We need to be in prayer to find out those answers. Never move unless there is a clear word from God.
So, we can relax. We haven’t messed our life up so bad that God cannot continue to weave it all into his beautiful plan. He is far greater than we give him credit for sometimes. Relax, pray, and keep letting God stitch the design into his plan. Our life is all about the journey not just the final destination. #selah