The final piece in my list of “Guiding Principles” is the most pivotal and life-changing: I will trust that God knows better than I do. It sounds simple, right? Maybe even obvious. But when you start to proceed that way, it changes everything. It is the most free way to live. Through some terrible circumstances, I first trusted God with the big things, but when I started trusting Him with my everythings, I began living the free life.
A few years ago, my New Year’s resolution was to follow without the test…not to dip my toe in the water and make a decision based on what I thought made sense but instead to say, “Okay God,” and then, “Okay,” again. Practically, it meant packing our house up when I felt like God said we were moving, even though our offer was declined; it meant changing schools when there was a charming little school blocks away from our house; it meant writing loads and loads of short excerpts, even though writing really wasn’t my thing and I had no plan for the ramblings, but felt like God said, “Write.”
When I started to follow my God without testing Him…when I began living in a pattern of praying and proceeding and then praying and continuing again, believing that God knew better than I did and then living like it was true…I began to live.
I always appreciated the stories about God and followed once I had tested things out and decided I agreed it was the way to go. I would try to do the things I was supposed to do, but I proceeded because I had determined that I was in agreement with God that it was the best choice. There was more to this life with God than I was experiencing and the only thing in the way was…me.
If we want a relationship with God, we have to trust Him. Our experience of Him will mirror our trust. For a long time I viewed “following God” like cracking open a little message on Sunday and accepting it like a fortune cookie, taking it as His guidance for me until I decided to crack open another little message, or until I need something from Him…and then go to where they sell the big bags of fortune cookies and open up message after message trying to find the right one…but wondering if He ever says anything at all.
There is a life with God that is compelling. That type of life, that type of love, came when I decided to stop deciding, when I chose to trust that God knew better than I did. I put my plans out by the curb, I surrendered what I thought were my hopes and dreams, and stopped trying to package God into cute little phrases that fit my life…instead saying, “Here is all of it…God if you will have me, I am all yours.”
That is when God ignited my heart and life became one worth living.
What could the end of the year look like if until January, you followed without the test? Without questioning it, just following? Proceeding, not because it makes sense, but because you would want to live trusting that God knows better than you do…because He does.
I believe you are about to find this is exactly the way you want to live, that this is the life you never knew you always wanted.
