This, friends, is never where we should be. There is not one plan that the Lord has redirected unintentionally. He does nothing by mistake. Not one illness, one injury, one lost loved one, one goal not completed, one dream not granted that keeps Him up wishing He had let the plans for our life go the way we desired. Psalm 33:10 says that he foils the plans and thwarts the purposes of the people, but that HIS plans stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations. When we're surprised that our plans fail, He is not.
When your hope is in Christ, everything is a blessing. Everything. Because when you hope in His unfailing love (Psalm 34:18), you realize that nothing He does is a fault. Sometimes it's hard to look at our future crumbling before our eyes and praise God for that. But that's what he calls us to do. When James commands us to consider it pure joy when we face trials (James 1:2-3), it's not that he wants us to necessarily be overflowing with happiness when we are confronted with hardships. But joy is what our response should always be. Joy in the fact that the Lord has bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves, joy that He is working all things for our good and His glory, joy because one day we will receive our reward in heaven for persevering under trials. When you have an eternal view of life here on earth, it makes every passing affliction seem so small (2 Corinthians 4:17).
A Christian's faith is not characterized by the good times. No one writes stories about circumstances that were filled only with happiness. The greatest testaments of Christ's love for us are when the Lord allows us to endure trials, and then unravels His perfect plan- a plan far better than our earthly, human minds could have ever come up with. So what, as women of Christ are we called to do when we lose? When we face hardships? When we realize that we're on a different path than the one God set out for us? We are called to rejoice. We are called to praise Him because He knows better than us, and delight in the fact that one day we'll be able to tell of how He worked this trial out for our good and His glory.
I love how Paul puts it in one of my all time favorite passages, 2 Corinthians 12: 9b-10. "Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong". Let that sink in for a minute. Paul was the most insulted, persecuted person in the bible besides Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:24-28- you should read it, it's crazy!). He underwent far more than we ever will. And the theme in all the books he's written? Joy. Pure, genuine, Christ-centered joy. And you better believe that Paul is in heaven now rejoicing over the reward he's received because of his faith and perseverance.
THIS, ladies, is the kind of joy we're called to let overflow from our hearts. Because when we truly realize what Christ has done for us, how can we be anything but joyful? Joy is not fleeting, it is not temporary. And it is the only way to truly live a life that continually abounds in love. Win or lose, God is working. Win or lose, we are loved unconditionally. So, in yet another redirection of my plans (let's be honest, when are they not being redirected...), I am overjoyed at this opportunity to give God the all the glory.
God has already gone before and set out a perfect path for us-complete with trials. It's up to us to decide how we're going to respond. Will we respond with joy or bitterness? With acceptance or anger? The choice is yours. Choose to live with a hope that does not change according to the seasons you're in. And when God's perfect plan does begin to unravel, you'll know that it is the reward you've persevered for.
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