Hello everyone!
I can speak to choosing my wants and over God's wants for me. I spent a good chunk of my life loving God but never really listening to anything He had to say. I went where I wanted to go and did what I wanted to do without any thought as to whether it was part of God's plan or not.
I spent a lot of money I'll never get back. I went into debt. Looking back, I ran from what God had for me and what he had for me to do, not to Him. When I got married, I was still doing my thing and so was my husband. I often wonder at times if doing my own thing got me involved with my husband in the first place. I can tell you now if I had it to do over again, I would not have run full speed ahead and married my husband. I would have sought God on that relationship and taken it much more slowly. In fact, I would have probably terminated that relationship. I know that may sound harsh but I've given this a lot of thought. My running full speed ahead into what I wanted caused a lot of heartache later on. I can't go back but I can go forward and manage my time. money and relationships better. I can also care about what God says, listen and actually do it. What a novel idea!
I want to tell you that when you choose yourself over God, you set many things in motion and you may not like where they lead in the end. Situations or people may look good on the surface but underneath there are things you don't see. Perhaps there is evil or deception. Perhaps there is money mismanagement. Perhaps things are not what they seem. If you don't stop long enough to ask God what he thinks and to see if you should even walk down that road then don't be surprised if everything backfires later on and you end up spinning your wheels or worse getting hurt.
I want to encourage you today to choose Him and His plan over yours. It took me 20 years to figure this out. I don't want it to take you 20 years to figure it out. I didn't want it to take 20 more for me to figure this out either. His plan is always better than our plan. It will take us farther than we ever thought we could go. His plan may not be what we would have expected but I promise you it is infinitely better than choosing your own way. Trust me when I say, your way will only take you the long way around and it could bring you heartache.
I'll leave you with a verse to contemplate today:
Proverbs 16:9; A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Choose His steps and choose the best life possible for you and yours!
Walking his way,
Elizabeth