– Secret Place Insights –
Dear One, I don’t know exactly when it first began to happen, but I do know it has been within the last few years. For most of the time, I have just been grateful to, “Come follow Me,” as Jesus invites us to do in Matthew 4:19. But sometimes lately I find that a few of my personal prayer requests seem to be my plan of action for God to execute.
What? God is God. I am not. He is all knowing. Yes, He allows me, and you, to know Him, but that does not make any of us all knowing! I am to follow God like a lamb, under the leadership of the All-Wise Shepherd who loves and protects like none other.
It is good that I recognize my folly for “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord,” Proverbs 21:30. But I find this, like any bad habit, difficult to overcome. Although I am trying to put away my plans, and fully return to my position as follower, ‘if only’s’ still push to the fore. To overcome I must practice absolute Trust, and fully embrace that God’s plan is the best plan.
This thought immediately brings to mind the old hymn Trust and Obey. I looked it up and read the following:
Trust and Obey
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
but His smile quickly drives it away;
not a doubt nor a fear, not a sigh nor a tear,
can abide while we trust and obey.
But we never can prove the delights of His love
until all on the altar we lay;
for the favor He shows, and the joy He bestows,
are for them who will trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,
or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go –
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Verse: Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
In the third verse I discover what has caused me to step out of line, “But we never can prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay.” I have things to lay on the altar! It is only after doing it that I can, again, take my place as a follower…a follower sincerely seeking to follow God’s plan. It seems that writing this essay has helped solve my problem. How about that! I hope, that if you have such a problem, that this essay will help you as well.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster,
to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
Blessings,
Susanne
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