What if I stopped trying to protect myself?
What if I threw my meticulous plans into the wind
and just set sail
on the infinite ocean of divine possibilities?
What if I let go
of everything I’ve been taught here
and allowed faith to be my compass
once and for all?
What if I finally learned to trust God
and all of His marvelous promises?
How far would I get?
Would it even matter if I lost myself along the way?
Isnt that kind of the point?
Saying yes to God and stepping out on faith involves risk, here on earth.
In Matthew 24-28, Jesus told His disciples “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.”
To follow Christ, we have to let go of fear-based thinking and reconfigure ourselves to love and trust-based thinking. To embrace God’s plan for our lives, we need to adopt a heavenly mindset and be willing to shed our habitual ego-based thinking, no matter how deeply rooted it is in us.
This can be a hard process. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, the apostle Paul says “ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
The question is: how can we too “demolish every argument and pretension, which sets us up against” Christ within our own hearts? On a personal level, what earth-based attachments are we holding on to that are preventing us from “losing ourselves” in God’s infinitely creative heavenly plan for us?
We can start by spending more time in prayer, journaling and self reflection. Over time, the Lord will gently reveal our brokenness, give us the grace to heal our thinking and gradually transform us into servants of the Light.
When we let go of our plans for life, we can open up into God’s, which are infinitely more wonderful than we can imagine. It can be scary to let go of long-held misperceptions to entrust ourselves more fully to God’s Divine plans, but ultimately it’s worth it to live the promises of Christ, which are true for each and every one of us.
What areas of your life are you clinging to your own plans, rather than embracing God’s plan? What attachments are you holding onto that are stopping you from more fully living a life of faith and trust in the Lord? Comment below, and I’ll be delighted to keep you in my prayers.
Lord, give us the courage and clarity to let go of our limited, habitual thinking and embrace Your divine plans for our lives. Teach us to carry our crosses and follow You into all the glorious promises you have made to those of us, who believe. In Jesus name, we pray.
written by Nicky Gant 3/21/2019 for http://www.uniteinprayer.org