God has a plan beyond the reality you see today. He has a purpose specifically for you that reaches beyond the circumstances of this season. Beyond this pain, beyond this struggle, beyond this uncertainty, God has goodness for you.
The enemy plays in the darkness of your uncertainties. Uncertainties that ask how much longer will I have to wait … how much more can I take … why is this happening to me … how will this ever be okay again? But remember my friends, we can boldly step into the unknown with our all-knowing God.
You don’t have to be certain of timing. You don’t have to be certain of details. You may never know how and when until one day you’re standing in a new reality where you see with your own eyes this new, purpose-filled season of your life. Make friends with the uncertainty on the way there.
Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6 “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,” and you can now claim it as your personal truth. In a world filled with uncertainties, be certain of this … GOD’S NOT DONE HERE.
God sees you and he is working all things together for good. His eye is on you. He has heard your prayers. He is moved by your petitions. AND HE IS WORKING. Let all the uncertainties remain uncertain because the greatest of all things is absolutely CERTAIN: GOD IS AT WORK.
When everything is unfolding as you planned, it’s actually hard to see God at work. It’s easy to assume these good times are the harvest of all those good seeds you’ve been planting. We’re quick to even say, I deserve this. My hard work, my persistence, my will-power earned me this. UNTIL IT ALL STOPS WORKING. THEN WHAT?
Have you ever been there? When what worked before stops working. When you’re humbled to realize the absolute truth that without God’s mighty hand in it all, girl, you’re not getting anywhere. If it worked before, if it was good, it was always because of God. You never did it on your own.
And this is where our roll is slowed so we can once again see God at work in everything. Yes, he works in the hardship. He works in the delay. He works in the no just as much as he works in the yes. And he is all up in your current circumstances working to bring you to to a destiny better than you could have ever worked out on your own.
This past weekend at our BIG Life Retreat in Tennessee, we had a hiking adventure day planned. Split up into 4 cars, we would drive through the Smoky Mountain National Park which is in full blown fall color, park at the trailead of Grotto Falls and hike together to the waterfall. That was the plan … until it all fell apart.
I was in the lead car with 4 other girls and because of traffic, we ended up about 15 minutes ahead of the other cars. As we drove through the National Park on a one way road, we quickly realized it was absolutely packed and there were no parking places anywhere. Like AT ALL. Not for one car, let alone all 4 of our cars carrying the 23 of us.
So, our only choice became to keep driving through the park and skip our planned hike to the waterfall. I sent out a text to everyone letting them know we would meet at the end and make other plans for our hike and picnic. BUT … no one had cell service. So now we’re all split up.
My car finally finds a parking spot toward the end of the road, several miles from our original destination, and we stopped, thinking we would see our other cars coming through to regroup. But hours passed, and we still don’t see the rest of our group.
So, here’s my car with just 5 of us at a totally random place in this massive National Park, walking down by the river, and a woman and her family see our retreat shirts. She asked if BIG Life was there right now. We said yes – then she looked at me and said, “What’s your name?” “Pamela.” Then with absolute shock she says, “Oh my goodness, I listen to your podcast!”
Okay God – we see what you did there! We see you had a divine encounter with Brittany planned and we needed to be way further down the river for it.
BUT GOD WAS DOING EVEN MORE.
Suddenly there’s a young lady named Charlott asking if she can document this random meeting. I begin speaking with Charlott and she’s in college to become a documentary film maker. She wants to know about our podcast and about BIG Life. I then find out she has started her own podcast to share the stories of God working in our lives – but she hasn’t released any of her 7 episodes yet.
Why? Ahhh, she’s struggling with the same thing we all struggle with – God, am I good enough? God, what if I fail? God, what if this doesn’t go anywhere? So, I got to tell her how incredibly terrible I was when I started this! I got to tell her how I was never good enough without God, but with him, we get to do impossible things!
Her eyes lit up – she’ll be listening today! God is working in her life, and he cancelled my plans to make sure I was at this one specific place to meet her.
But in the back of my mind, I’m still thinking about the other 3 cars from our retreat group – they’re no where. Oh they must be so frustrated. They’re separated from their leader, uncertain what to do, maybe their entire day is ruined.
There was nothing more I could do without cell service, so my car finally drives out of the park back into Gatlinburg. Then, boom – my phone goes off. All the other cars found parking at the trailhead. They were all together. They were having the time of their lives on that trail. AND, one of our girls wanted to be baptized in the river by the waterfall so one of our other girls got in that cold water and did it for her!
I wasn’t even there!!!! And I wasn’t supposed to be! That was supposed to happen without me there.
Oh God, you are simply amazing! You’re in every detail, every disappointment, every encounter, every twist and turn, every cancellation, every good plan that didn’t work out because you had something better! Look for him and you will see him working! When things aren’t working, look for him even harder, because he’s doing something bigger.
Remember our friends the Israelites in the Old Testament of our Bible? They were enslaved in Egypt, then God raised up a leader in Moses to lead them to freedom, but they got stuck on the way to their Promised Land. Stuck in the desert. They got stuck out of fear. They were too afraid to go forward, so they wandered in circles. Circles in the desert for 40 years. And God allowed it. He allowed the hardship. He allowed the delay. But he never forgot what he started in them and the destiny they had ahead. He was faithful even when they were not.
And I promise you, my sister, God will be faithful to you even in your times of being unfaithful. Even when you’re wrong, he’s still lovingly guiding you to what is right. Even when you’re wandering down a dangerous path, he’s creating the Uturn sign for your journey back. Even when you’re ready to give up, he’s never calling it quits on you. You simply can’t outrun his goodness with your failure. You can’t outdo his love with your doubt. You can’t undo his certainty with your uncertainty. You’re simply not that powerful.
You know what you will find when you’ve gone down the wrong path? Do you know what you will find when you’ve wandered around in uncertainty? Do you know what you will find when fear caused you to stumble? YOU WILL FIND GRACE.
That’s what the Israelites found.
“They found grace out in the desert … out looking for a place to rest, they met God out looking for them!”
God’s mighty and powerful grace is meeting you here in your desert. Here in this place where freedom turned into hardship. Here in this place where what was working is no longer working. Here in this place where it’s taking far longer than you imagined, and entirely harder than you were prepared for. This is your desert, and this is where you find grace.
This is where you find God was always out looking for you too. Meet him here. Run to him and surrender to his guidance. Receive his provision. Rest in his shadow where you find peace that straight up doesn’t make sense. Peace that passes understanding, yeah that’s what that means … having peace when you know you shouldn’t have peace, but somehow you do. That’s God meeting you. And God meets you in the deserts of life.
HE DOES NOT ABANDON YOU IN THE DESERT. HE MEETS YOU.
“God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! And so now I’ll start over with you and build you up again.”
Girl, God is meeting you here today to tell you he has NEVER QUIT loving you. Not for one minute. You can expect his love. You can expect his love to follow you all the days of your life, even when you mess up, even when you give up for a little bit, even when you wander in the desert, no, ESPECIALLY when you wander in the desert. He meets you with more of his love.
And now he says, I’m starting over with you. Yes, you. He’s starting over with you and building you up again. He’s not done with you yet. You are his masterpiece still in progress, and sometimes masterpieces go through a little reworking. Sometimes master artists take a pause, step back from the work and say “wait, let me make this even better.”
God’s gonna build you up again and make you even better. Just like meeting the Israelites in the desert where they were overcome with fear and wandered lost, he started over with them and built them up in that promised land. He delivered them to the destiny he always had waiting for them.
And won’t he do the same for you? Won’t he build you up again? Won’t he deliver you to your destiny? YES HE WILL!
Look for him in the details when things don’t go as you planned. Look for him in your disappointments and failed plans. He’s working for you. He is faithful. He is looking for you.
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