I Had My Plans Until God Showed Up
Oh yes I did have my plans! Do you know the downside of an A-type person? You plan everything and you really do not appreciate disruptions. Well, I am the A++ type of a person and that means my brain sees it and it already plans it from the foundation to roofing in a split second. If and only if you knew how many things my brain processes in a minute, you would definitely not want to live there. During my personal retreat in December and early January, I had the opportunity to take an inventory of my life and I decided to look at the last decade of my life. Well, let’s just say it got me emotional for at least 24 hours.
I was married, I have a beautiful son, God took me from waiting on a paycheck to going to fish and also baking my own bread. I saw a potential that I didn’t even know I carried. I went through a life-threatening experience and had a major surgery in which God showed me His miraculous healing power (I have no single scar on my body to show you what I had endured - He made sure of that). I had plans for happily ever after, for better or worse and until death do us apart, 2 more beautiful and healthy children, building an empire and as the plans were, by now, I should have been traveling the world and enjoying the rewards of my labor. Oh there’s so much more - my vision board will scare you but they were all on track to happen. The only problem was, I didn’t take it to God because honestly, none of them included Him or anything to do with His kingdom. I have shared with you how I grew up in a house of Ministry and wanted nothing to do with it. I conveniently kept God at bay even though He was the one making everything happen for me. I am hardworking, diligent, loyal, committed and very disciplined so hey, I thought those were just what were working on my behalf.
Then it all came crashing down and boy, did it all crash. I’ll spare you the horrid details because I don’t need you feeling sorry for me. It was my initiation process in leading me to Jesus Christ and what He had written in my book before I came here to earth. Did you know that I had heard Proverbs 19:21 AMP several times and I really didn’t give any meaning to it?
“Many plans are in a man’s mind, But it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand (be carried out).”
Let’s just say that this scripture is as real as it reads. All the plans I had were really wasting God’s agenda over my life. I can imagine Him getting to His wits end when He saw that if He left me alone, I’d be completely gone and then He’d had to orchestrate a whole intervention that would have been quite unbearable. Even in this phase of brokenness that I endured, I thought I would not survive it - the pain, the heartache, the fears, the betrayal, neglect, humiliation - you just name it. Like Job lamented in Job 32:25 KJV, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me”. If Job were a female, that would be me. Everything I feared in life I met so now, there’s nothing else left to fear. Not even death. Little did I know God allowed it all to happen to bring me closer to Him and get His attention and He surely got my attention really well. He now has me at a place where I am totally dependent on Him. It’s a lesson I will not want you to endure so if you have the opportunity to include God in your life now, please do it ASAP!
Truth is, He might not do that with everyone - our assignments on earth differ from each other but one thing is certain, His plans and purposes for your life are what will prevail in the end. My brain still makes plans by the way, it’s a characteristic inherent in me and He knows that. Only thing is, after going through all the time to make the plans, I throw it all back to Him and say, “nevertheless, let Your will be done and not mine”. It has been a rewarding experience thus far so I decided to burn all my ships and the lifeboats and life jackets. Where He leads I follow, when He says stay, I stay. When He says NO, I know it’s a NO and when He doesn’t say anything, I know to wait until He’s ready to speak. Don’t get me wrong, It’s not a robotic relationship that I have with Christ because I am a tough negotiator and things have to be tangible for me, including Him and His glory over my life. Maybe to you, He is just a spirit but to me, He is a spirit and can also be tangible to me. If he walked on earth, then He still has the capability to make me see Him as real as He can be. He knows my form so He deals with me in a way only He can. Ultimately, He wins all the time but He gives me passes too which I don’t hesitate to take advantage of.
Whatever your plans are, let me nudge you to bring it ALL to Him and ask Him to do what He wants to do with your life.
XOXO,
Lady Abena.
Did You Also Get A Word For 2022?
Pardon my ignorance but do you know I had no idea of the frenzy in the body of Christ about “a word for the year?” Well, I just happened to be snooping around social media a lot at the end of December and the first week in January, when I noticed that almost every church or ministry was posting their “word for the year”. Some loyal and religious followers were even counting down to when the “word of the year” will be announced or published. This is no sarcasm at all, but what have they been living on the prior year? I think it is becoming more of an annual ritual than its true intent.
The WORD should already be living in you and seriously, if the WORD is not in you, no amount of phrases or slogans for 2022 will take effect in your life. Here’s a better word for you - ingrain this in your spirit and feed on it daily all the days of your life.
John 1:1-5 MSG:
1 1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
3-5 Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
This is what we need to live by - all days this year and all our lives. The WORD - which is Jesus Christ is the one that will bring everything into existence for you and I this year. If He doesn’t exist in us, you cannot expect any slogan to take effect. Seek first The WORD of God. AMEN!
XOXO,
Lady Abena.
Can I Question God?
I don’t see why not? You know, for most part of my life I’ve heard good meaning Christians say that “you can’t question God”. That really bothered me because I didn’t create myself nor did I create everything in the world. That was all Him so why can’t I question Him about the things I don’t understand about my life and the world in general? When I made a commitment to study the scriptures, I was amazed to find out how many people were questioning God and He wasn’t mad at them.
One of those moments was in Genesis 15:2 AMP, where God was promising Abraham of a great reward He has for him. Abraham looked at his life very thoughtfully and questioned God,
“ Abram said, “Lord [a]God, what reward will You give me, since I am [leaving this world] childless, and he who will be the owner and heir of my house is this [servant] Eliezer from Damascus?” Abraham even went on in Genesis 15:3 to kind of accuse God that, “Since You have given no child to me, one (a servant) born in my house is my heir.”
Let me break down this conversation between God and Abraham in modern language. Abraham had been blessed extremely by God except the gift of a child. Genesis 13:2 ESV reveals that “Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” Which means he lacked nothing except an heir. When God told him He will reward him, to Abraham it sounded more like a joke because really, he has everything. The Message Bible even reads it better: Genesis 15:2-3 MSG Abram said, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?” Did Abraham really ask God what use are His gifts to him? That sounds rude doesn’t it? I mean, if I asked that same question to any regular human, they would tell me I’m stepping out of line. Read Genesis 15 further to see how God responds to Abraham - very reassuringly. No, He wasn’t mad at Abraham at all for that question. Do you see a similar pattern in Job 38 MSG when He responds to Job? I love reading Job 38 because it’s a similar conversation and response between God and myself all the time.
What I am trying to tell you is that God is not a man who gets angry and offended by every question we pose. We would all be dead by now if that was His nature. On the contrary, He loves to give us the wisdom we lack. He wants us to ask Him the things that we don’t understand and He is perfectly fine with our tantrums and frustrations. After all, we are His children and what do children do? Throw fits at everything don’t they get. So, bring it all to Him. Whatever you are facing, however you are feeling, He is patiently waiting to provide answers to you. Go ahead and let the questions rain this week. Don’t walk through your year with your brain almost about to explode because you have questions only God can answer.
Be blessed!
XOXO,
Lady Abena