A Sure Risk
Unpredictable. Ludicrous even. God’s story for mankind has always been full of surprise.
One long look at the people He chose to change the world over the course of history in the Bible will reveal just how enigmatic God can be. Spend a little time reading about how God leads His people and you will see that His action plan is nothing short of a holy kind of bizarre.
The real-life characters range from prostitutes, shepherds, children, exiles, tax-collectors, outcasts, fishermen, young women, the worst kind of sinners, and racial minorities. Not exactly what the world might call “go-getters” or “self-starters”.
And God’s methods are peculiar. He asks us to march and blow trumpets to bring down walls, to send home soldiers and enter battles with only the minimum of reinforcements to gain a victory, permits the faithful to be thrown into a lion’s den to show Himself mighty to save, calls a ragtag band of fishermen to lead a revolution, and He allows His Son to die in order to become King.
Hebrews 11 gives a beautiful explanation about the faith of people God used in awe-inspiring ways to fulfill His plans for their lives and to set the course of history.
So why am I so shocked when the plans I thought I was supposed to follow to pursue my dream to glorify God seem to be heading in the opposite direction than I thought they would go?
That’s why I’m shifting my focus about what God has set in my heart. For quite a while now, I thought I had figured out what God’s plan was for our family. I have been pretty certain about what God wanted me to focus my time on as a ministry on a broader scale. And I was pretty sure that I knew how God was going to bring it about. But I think I was wrong.
My misstep was forgetting that even when God plants a desire and a dream in our hearts, that He has the prerogative to change it for me. He knows each step of the way, and how to get there, and He also knows that His plan is better than mine. His plan is not predictable. His plan is not always the logical one. His plan is rarely the one that follows my own ideas. But His plan is always more spectacular.
Holley Gerth challenges us to follow our God-Sized Dreams in her new book, and this week, she challenged us to consider what the riskiest part of following our dream looks like.
I never really considered placing my dreams in the hands of a perfect God, risky. But my emotions and actions might say otherwise. As a human with limited knowledge and understanding, it’s risky for me to let it all go-these ideas of what my life is supposed to look like, and the goals that I felt God wanted me to chase after. And yet, the oxymoron of oxymorons is that losing your life in Christ, means finding it. Dying means gain. Releasing means receiving. It’s always been that way in Scripture, and God never changes.
What seems so risky-the letting go of my neat and tidy image for the future, is the most steadfast thing I can do. It's a sure risk. My hope is not in the method or even the outcome. My hope is in Christ. When we decide that God can have free-reign on where we go, what we do, and how we get there, the unpredictability of it all is the most certain path we can take. Risking is really about relinquishing to a certain Victor. And there is nothing more predictable than that.
YOUR TURN! Tell us how releasing your expectations to God, has blessed your life in unpredictable ways. How has placing your plans in God’s hands allowed you to experience true security? If this post has blessed you, please SHARE it with others. I love to hear from you!!
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. Psalm 115:1
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