Not Finished Yet - I Am a Work In Progress - Be Patient With Me

Dreams. Visions. Plans. We live in a time when it’s all about having OUR dreams and pursuing them. Wherever you turn, there is an entrepreneur teaching you how to live YOUR dream life. How to pursue YOUR dreams. How to move from vision to reality. How to plan things out. Have a thirty, twenty, ten and five year vision and plan it out to the details on how you’ll reach YOUR plans.

Don’t take me wrong. Working in the financial industry I know that people don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan. Without a written financial plan you’ll have a hard time to reach your financial destination. I believe in plans to be reached and goals to be met. Jesus had a plan too. Early morning he woke up and worked out God’s plan for the day. Jesus came to save. Jesus’ goal was to bridge the gap between humanity and the Father. Jesus worked hard to reach that goal. Jesus had a busy agenda living on Earth. His time was limited too, he worked hard…yet, he lived a life to fulfill GOD’s agenda, not his own agenda.

In our daily busy schedule do we allow God to over write our agenda and be used by him or are we so focused and goal oriented that we might even miss the times when God softly would like to interrupt our agenda. God is a gentleman and he is not screaming and pushing his will down on our throat. He is looking for those who are willing to live a life tuned to his will and agenda.

I am amazed by Jesus’ life journey. He was so tuned to his Father’s will that he instantly heard AND obeyed the Father’s promptings. We ought to be God’s extended hands and feet. His heart and his eyes, but do we even realize when God interrupts us to BE his extension? We can talk and say all these things, but do live a life that reflects that we walk the talk.

If we don’t consciously live a life which is open to listen and obey God’s guidance and interruptions we might miss our purpose in life. We often think that we have to have big purposes, huge mission trips and big churches to fulfill God’s will, yet God often works through little miracles if we are willing to put aside our agenda for his agenda and purpose.

You might wonder what God’s interruptions in our daily lives are.

- The sudden thought of someone you haven’t heard or talked for a while. Are you too busy to pray for them right there or pick up the phone? How often we say: I’ll call them and days and weeks go by with good intentions but no actions to follow the intentions.

- The “feeling” in your stomach to give to some mission (or someone unknown), yet thinking that you need to wait for the next paycheck because you can’t afford it now. How easy to follow our financial agenda instead of God’s agenda. How many kids would be still alive if we would follow God’s agenda at ALL times and give when HE prompts us to do so? (Not when we think is a good time to give. This shows that we don’t trust God enough to come through and provide for our needs if we follow and obey His will).

- The little things that might seem so silly and crazy at times. Yet, God is working through little things one step at the time. God is searching to see if we are ready to give up our will and logic for his will and plans to reach and save.

Over the years I had been interrupted by God in different situations which seemed absolutely ridiculous at times. Unfortunately, I haven’t always followed God’s path, because either I didn’t even realized it or I was too busy with my agenda. Lately, in my walk with God I ask God to help me have an open eye and ear for his guidance and an obedient heart even when it makes no sense.

Jesus is the best example of how to live our life. He was in constant connection with the Father and he instantly obeyed. He didn’t question: is this really you Father? Is this really your will? Do you really want me to do this? Jesus didn’t pray for weeks before he healed a sick. Jesus didn’t fasted and had a prayer meeting before he healed on the Sabbath. Jesus just DID God’s will at ALL times. Jesus lived a life so tuned into his Father’s will that he was able to hear clearly and obey instantly.

Close to thirty years my “Christian” life was all about MY life, MY agenda, MY plans, MY wills, wants and goals. I asked God’s blessing on MY plans. I thought that being a Christian IS going to church and ADD God into my life, into my plans, ask God’s blessing into my dreams and desires. It was ALL about me. To bad, God is NOT about our little plans. God has his ultimate agenda. The question remains: do I want to be part of his agenda or do I want to force him into mine?

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. ~ Isaiah 55: 8-9

If we want to be powerful representatives of Christ we MUST surrender our agenda to God’s will. We will be effective workers for God’s kingdom ONLY when we give up our ways and follow HIS ways and time frames. We don’t have the capacity to understand God’s ways so we should stop trying to figure it out. God is almighty and we are humans. God is not asking us to agree with his will. God is not asking our opinion if we like it or not. God is not interested in our feedback. God is looking for those who trust him enough to obey him ALL the time, without questions asked. Don’t get me wrong, you might ask God, but if you don’t understand the ways he works are you willing to still obey him? If yes, that’s sincere trust.

I personally ask God many things too. I don’t understand the way he works, but that is OK with me. I don’t have to agree with his way, I just have to trust him AND follow his ways. I learned over the years that I will never understand and figure it our how God works. But I trust him with all my heart, because I know that just because I don’t understand everything now, God IS in control.

“Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12

As we read how Jesus’ lived his life we find over and over examples when Jesus had a plan, but the Father interrupted him and Jesus just followed the Father’s will and agenda.

“We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.” ~ Mark 1:38. Jesus is in Galilee and the disciples planned to stay in the city. People were looking for Jesus and they brought their sick to him, yet after Jesus spent some time talking to the Father he knew is was time to move on to the next city. Jesus simply followed the Father’s agenda.

“So they left by boat for a quiet place, where they could be alone. But many people recognized them and saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and got there ahead of them. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things”. ~ Mark 6: 32-34

Jesus’ plan was to go to a quite place with his disciples, but when he saw the crowd he had compassion and let the Father interrupt his plans and just followed the Father’s agenda. So he began teaching them. Been there? Just one quite day to relax and the phone rings. You look at the caller ID and know that if you pick up the phone your plan to relax for the day is over. Are you willing to be interrupted and BE used by God?

Would you share a time when God interrupted your day? What was your respond?