Okay. I have a confession to make. And I hope it helps you the way it has helped me today. My confession is….I can be a bit of a control freak. (And my husband said a huge AMEN!) I had never really realized it until a few years ago, and believe me, I’ve really endeavored to change. And I think I’ve made great strides in changing…but sometimes, I see it pop it’s ugly little head back up.
Like yesterday….
Have you ever been really trusting God for something…I mean like for years….and you’re standing on the Word and you’re quoting the Word and you’re speaking faith and you’re trusting Him. And you gain momentum and are taking huge steps forward. AND THEN….something happens to send you a few steps backwards and you just get discouraged?
Well, that happened to me yesterday. We have been believing God for something for years. And we’ve been standing and especially recently getting a lot of encouragement in our spirits from Him about the end of the tunnel. And we’ve seen some breakthrough in small answers to prayer in this area. Such encouragement that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Such hope. I even began to set a plan with kind of a time table…..
Then the bad report. And my time table flew out the window and I got – GASP – discouraged. Where did my faith go?
Then the Holy Spirit lovingly nudged me to Hebrews:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)
Don’t you just love it when He brings His Word and it brings such light?
And He showed me – my faith and hope were not rooted in Him. They started in Him. He authored them for sure. But they weren’t completely rooted in Him. I had let my faith and hope switch over from Him to my plan. My time table. Ouch!
I let Him author my faith, but like the control freak that I can tend to be, as soon as faith was authored and encouragement came, I looked at Him and said, “I’ll take that!” And I took control of that quicker than you can say, “SNAP!”
That’s why discouragement could come so easily. That’s why I could go from the heights and joy of hope and encouragement to the depths of despair and confusion so quickly.
He gently whispered to my heart, “I authored it. Let it go. Please let Me finish it.”
And I realized He already had a plan to finish it. I just had to trust Him to finish it and put my trust in Him. (Duh! Practice what I preach maybe?) Did I really think that my plan would be better than the plan of the Creator of the Universe anyway? Ouch again!
I never really thought those things out loud. I didn’t even realized my faith had switched from Him to my plan. It was so sublte….
So, just as quickly as I had formulated it, I let go of my time table. I let go of my idea of how I thought it should happen. I let go of needing that control of knowing how it would happen, and I got content real quick in His power and ability to answer.
God doesn’t start anything He can’t finish. And before He authors anything you can be sure that He already has a plan of how He is going to finish it. And it will generally NEVER look the way we envision it.
All we have to do is trust. Hope. Be confident in Him. Let go of control and let Him do it however He wants to do it. That’s truly when all glory and honor go to Him for it anyway. That’s when a test turns to a testimony.
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. (Philippians 1:6)
He who authored it is well able to finish it if we just let Him.