How often do we struggle in knowing God is in control? When I look over my life I can see Him whispering reassurance that He's got it yet still I question. Our beautiful black truck and precise plan were another whispering, this time for Brad and me.
We had a good plan.
Brad diligently searched and researched trucks for two months before we committed to buying another vehicle. I felt released and I trusted Brad was making a good decision as to the truck we were to buy. So off to Connecticut we went – a five hour drive north to finalize the purchase of the new-to-us truck.
Over the past four years I've been presented with many “big ticket” moments where I could exercise my trust and submission to my husband's judgement. The biggest on: leaving a cozy campsite in Tennessee to head home to our fire-ravished home in Pa.
I have learned that submission isn't going along blindly or being a doormat but rather discussing, formulating, interjecting and ultimately allowing him to make the final call, even if it means I'd do things differently.
We promptly put our other truck on the market, even paying $180 to advertise it. It was in great shape, just not big enough to pull our camper.
That was June, 2014.
I was sure we had done wisely yet the calendar pages continued to turn and no one wanted our shiny black truck.
Why God! Why won't this truck sell? I went to him in prayer, questioning if we'd done the right thing.
September……..
October………
November……..
December……..
Nothing.
God's Perfect Plan
The money manger in me saw wasted funds paying for registration, insurance and that new payment we were enduring.
No sooner had we celebrated another trip around the sun with some pork and sauerkraut we got the wonderful news in the mail: Your escrow was short – pay $4,300 or your mortgage payment goes up $500 a month. Oh, and you need to pay it by February 1st.
Happy New Year.
Not even this former budgeting coach has an extra $4,300 lying around so this was not good news and there was no way we could swing $500 more a month unless we sold the truck, lived in the dark, and ate hamburger helper for supper every night.
That Monday I relisted the truck again, this time out of desperation. We didn't just need it sold because it was killing grass in the front yard, we needed the money.
After six people inquired about that week, we sold the truck on Friday, over six months after we started listing it. Provision.
Even after it sold we had people messaging us asking if it was available. Overabundance.
Our pretty good plan was not His plan. His plan was perfect. It wasn't too late, it wasn't early, it was just in time. Timing.
I was truly speechless when my husband said the guy was buying the truck. It was a moment I'll never forget and it spoke to both of us about God's goodness and how we must learn to trust His plan even when we don't fully understand it.
Brad knew too, acknowledging that we had just clearly seen God's hand as though He reached down from Heaven with a loving, gracious, all-knowing, hand.
Understanding God's Plan
Rarely in life do we understand God's plan before it happens. Sometimes, often times, we can look at another's life and see God at work knitting the perfect pattern but it's harder to examine our lives in this way. It takes spiritual maturity and faith; both of which need regular watering and care like the fresh sprouts of spring vegetables.
When we come to the place where we can take our hands off our lives and let Jesus take the proverbial wheel we have reached a new level of maturity and faith. I find this level of faith ebbing and flowing in my life. There are times when the choice to live by faith is easy and other times my flesh has a plan and I can't see past myself far enough to see that God's got a different, much better plan than I.
I long for the day when I can live totally by faith without worry of my plan getting ruined. A day when I don't need to do the self talk to convince me that His way is better than mine. I don't know if I will every fully be there but that is what I long for.
How is your faith? Do you trust Him enough with every detail or are you still holding on?
Better Yet, Understand God
Knowing God is in control is not easy, but when we reach the place of daily putting our trust in Him we can being to live a thriving life.
In order to exercise our faith and trust in His plan we must ultimately know Him.
Like a good Father, we trust in God not because we've read about Him in a book or watched a well-done movie but because we know Him. We know His character and we that leads us to faith in Him and His plan.
It isn't enough to read your Bible and check it off your To Do list each day. We must dig deep and understand who God is and experience Him in all areas of our live.
My son has a rubber bracelet that he got two years ago at VBS. It says “Watch for God”. It's a reminder to look for God sightings every day. Purposing to see God in the every day in literature, poetry, science, and song is a great way to watch for God and get to know his character.
In the new study, Omni God by Katie Hornor that digs deep into the character of God and how we can see that character every day.
Omni God explores how God is:
- Faithful
- Truthful
- Forgiving
- Patient
As we get to know God's character and reflect on how He shows us that character, in things like selling a shiny black truck, we deepen our relationship with Him and increase our faith.
Onmi God can be completed in nine weeks or a shorter five-week time frame so it is perfect for either a Bible study group, a self study, or as part of your homeschool semester.
Knowing God's character will increase your faith in Him, especially during the uneasy and hard seasons of life. When we plan and our plan fails, knowing the God's whose plans are perfect is a comforting reality.
While I received a copy of Omni God and was compensated for my review, all opinions are my own and a positive review was not required. I have enjoyed working through this study and plan on using it in our homeschool soon.
The post Planning is Good but God is Better: Why Knowing God’s Character Is So Important appeared first on .