Good morning family @blurt. Welcome to word for today.
A few years ago, I met a woman who was a wonderful Christian. She devoted her life to her husband, her church, and all the women of the community. She followed where God led, but that wasn’t going as she had planned. The Lord had laid it upon her and her husband’s heart to adopt a child. They filled out all the paperwork. They jumped through every hoop. Then, they waited, and waited. Not long after I met her, we had someone ask my husband and I to adopt their unborn baby. We had adopted before and been foster parents for children with drug and alcohol addictions, but we thought our days of babies were over. Two weeks later, we were holding our newborn daughter and overjoyed at God’s love. However, this woman whom I had only met a few times before struggled. Later, she came to me and confessed the anger in her heart. Like the Israelites in our reading today, she felt a bit betrayed by the God whom she was following. She had waited diligently for years, and we were not waiting at all. To her, it seemed like we had gotten her prize.
The problem the Israelites, and most of us at some point in our lives, faced was not that the path God was calling them down was somehow flawed or broken. It was that their expectations were wrong.
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
The problem with thinking that things aren’t going as planned is that we aren’t dealing with our plan. We don’t know the details of God’s plan. What may appear to us as a set back may be a strategic move on God’s part. God needed Pharaoh mad enough to expel the Israelites from his land. More than that, this was an opportunity for God to show the Egyptians that He was the one true God. It may not have been the response the Israelites expected, but it was exactly what God had planned for.
When things don’t go as planned, realize that we aren’t following our plan but the Lord’s. Instead of complaining, pray for understanding and patience as God’s plan unfolds. This woman who struggled so much with waiting for God’s plan, was soon blessed with the perfect baby for her family. Remember, we don’t want other people’s blessings – they won’t fit us no matter how hard we try.