Maybe some of you suffer from the same disease as I—I’ll call it “figuring.” When God puts something on my heart to do, my mind immediately moves to figuring. It wants to figure out why it might not work. It wants to figure out whether I can really do this, especially if it’s something I’ve never done (God’s specialty). It wants to figure out the A to Z of the entire plan, contingencies included, because after all, I might be crazy and didn’t hear from God in the first place.
I guess, in other words, I have to admit I like to walk by sight. But God’s will for us is to walk by faith, and when my mind starts “figuring,” these verses from Proverbs always rise up in my heart: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
In January of this year, I started getting active on Facebook, and God put it on my heart to start a Facebook group for my ministry, Colored in Christ. My response? I started figuring. I figured hardly anyone would join. I figured most of my Facebook friends (people from elementary, junior high, high school, and college) didn’t want to read Christian devotions. I figured people would plain think I was crazy. I said, “Lord, show me who the Christians are on my list of friends and then I’ll start the group.” God is funny. I just knew He whispered to my heart, “Start the group and I’ll show you who the Christians are.”
I started it and watched with awe as the messages poured in from old friends, new friends, and complete strangers telling me they needed the group and were being blessed by the devotions. What? If I had kept to my figuring, I would’ve never started it. I couldn’t lean to my own understanding. I had to trust in the Lord, acknowledge Him, and let Him lead.
How about you? What are you trying to figure out according to your own understanding? Put the figuring aside and trust in the Lord. Walk by faith. Ask Him to lead you. He’ll make your paths straight.
Heavenly Father, I’m prone to want to walk by sight. I want to see the entire plan laid out before me and then take the first step. But I know You want me to walk by faith. Help me, Father, to trust You, with all my heart. Prompt me to acknowledge You in all my ways, and I thank You for Your promise that You’ll make my paths straight, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
