God doesn't have an expiration date on His plans for you

I bent low to pull out the old food containers.  I rolled up my sleeves and sighed.  One of my most dreaded jobs in the home is to clean the refrigerator.  You just never know what's growing in there.    You know what I'm talking about right?  Why is it that some foods taste better the first time and then others just don't reheat the same?  Believe it or not there were some expired condiments from years ago.  Ahem...I said years.

As I was pulling out some older sandwich meat, I was just thinking about how God doesn't have an expiration date.  I was a bit sad that some food didn't get used as I had planned.  And then my mind drifted how we get stuck in those places where we think we have dropped on God's plan list.

When we don't see God working in our lives, we think His greater plans for us have expired.  We see God doing greater things in others, but fail to recognize His hand in our own.  Do we really think that God is going to run out of blessings for us?  

There is a part of us that wish we could expedite the plans of God.  So how do we dispose of man's way of thinking about His plans for us and not inject our own timelines into God's agenda?

Take a deep breath....we must learn run with patience.  We must wait upon the Lord, instead of crossing our arms and tapping our toes at Him.  God has an appointed time for the plans that He has involved us in.  So many of us just give up on the promises of God because we expect God to move and shuffle circumstances around according to our rush.

God is outside of time.

God appoints time, He created it and has planned seasons for everything and for every purpose.  "To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

How often do we think that God is only watching the clock to tick off our birthdays, and has forgotten about our dream list.  When you are tempted to think that He has forgotten you, ignored you, and or is simply disappointed with you, that is a lie.  Don't give into that way of thinking.

Dispose of the lies of what you think God isn't doing and believe that His greater things are something to hope for.  Give into what you know about God over what you don't see happening quickly enough.  Every season takes a preparation.  So it if feels like you are taking a new unplanned direction or you feel marginalized or rejected, it's more likely God's protection that is cleaning out His plans for you.

I'll never forget the time, my son-in-law was applying for several pilot jobs with some smaller airlines.  There was one airline that he preferred.  He didn't hear from them right away and he started to think the worst, that he wouldn't get the job.  He felt rejected by the company in their lack of communication.  As it turns out, he didn't get the job.  But a few months later, he read in the news that the company that he was hoping to get hired by was going bankrupt.  He was immediately grateful that the job he wanted so badly didn't work out.  He now flies with a mainline airline that is much bigger than the one he was hoping for.

If you are waiting on something God has promised, remember:
God is outside of time, and your time is coming.

God is working on ALL the details for His glory.  He does everything with attention to detail.
There is service in waiting.
Encourage yourself in the Lord, read some stories of His faithfulness in the Bible.

Learn to wait patiently.  Not like a spoiled child who just wants their way, but like a loving child who can't wait to see what their Daddy has for them.  Don't give up!

"Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart" (Galatians 6:9).

Remember God has a due season; His plans for you never expire.  

What Does Logic Have To Do With It?

I ran into an old friend and we caught up on each other's family news.  I was really behind on hers.  They are adopting twins from the Phillipines.  I heard her exciting and amazing "only-God-opens-doors-like-this" story.  What I noted from our conversation was the hardest part of the process for their family.  It was allowing their minds catch up with their hearts of obedience.  

We talked about God's obvious opportunities, as she was giving God all the glory about how the plan worked out perfectly.  But in the middle of it all...

Their adoption circumstances looked too hard.  She had support, she had prayers, she cried out to God to make it clear and she had thrown out many fleeces.  She wanted to be that sure that this was the right path that God wanted them to go.

I got to thinking about how we seek God's best, we want to do His will.  Sure, we want that!  That is....what we want...right?  Don't we all want to throw out our fleeces and ask God to answer our fleece prayer exactly?  Yes, yes we do....

I believe God does just that.  But our minds get bogged down with logic or reasoning that we simply can't accept.  We tell ourselves that obedience has to be hard and then our resolve to obey becomes stubborn.  Our own logic becomes the limitation that sets our heart's obedience.  

We just need to say "yes" and He takes care of the rest.

God is a creative God and He will lead us through our problems or tell us how to fix our problems.  His simple answers to our daily conundrums and big life decisions require simple obedience and most times, we stumble over that.    

Who said obedience had to be so hard?  Following God shouldn't be complicated.  If we follow what God truly has led or asked us to do, then he won't leave us in the middle of His calling to let us figure it all out for ourselves.  

God knows the end before he brings us our beginnings.  

It's wise to let God engage our logic with His plans. 

God's grace is compelling and engaging.  Grace captivates the matters of the heart. Grace facilitates simple obedience.  Obedience is our expression of love to God.  Our love responses are fueled as we allow God's love logic to lead. 

"And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love." ~ 2 John 1:6