Change of Plan: How to trust God and see him in it.

Let's be real, even without the pandemic it is hard to trust in God's plan. It’s in our nature; we all have our own ideas about what our life should look like. We all find it hard to let go of what we think we want or need. Especially when the thing we were counting on falls through or we end up somewhere so totally different than what we were expecting. So, with this pandemic, we may be feeling even more lost and struggling to trust God.

Maybe your plans for university or school have been disrupted, maybe they have been completely changed. Maybe you have lost your job or the one you were meant to start is no longer going ahead. Maybe your health has been affected or you are struggling with healing and grief. This pandemic has caused a lot of disruption and pain. All of this can shake us in our faith and make us feel like we have no hope.

First of all, I want to say that it is more than okay to be worried, to be a bit shaken at first. When our circumstances change drastically before us, we are allowed to feel that. You can grieve and be confused and even a little frustrated that what you had planned, has fallen through. Just because we have a God who has great things planned for us doesn’t mean you have to be immediately happy when things go wrong. The bible actually tells us there is a time to be happy and sad (Ecclesiastes 3). God won’t be offended that you have feelings about what is going on in your life!

But, here comes the big BUT! We can’t stop there. We can’t stop at being sad or frustrated. To really trust God and his plan we have move on from our initial feelings. It takes work and faith to trust that whatever has happened will work out for good. The journey as a Christian is not one straight road, and there are many reasons for why our plan changes. The beginnings of really trusting God starts in our hearts. We need to be sure in our hearts that above all our feelings, God wants good for us. We have to exercise faith in the unseen, in the unknowing. If we can start by just believing that God wants good for us – we can start to move on and really trust that these changes will lead to something greater and bring us closer to God’s plan for us.

Also remember there are many reasons why your life may be upside or feel lost. But those reasons are all there so that God can lead you, be close to you and bless you. Look at these 4 main reasons why most people experience a change of plan.

4 Reasons why plans change:

1) You were reading the wrong map and going down the wrong road. Sometimes it is because we have gone astray from God’s plan and we are making up our own. Sometimes we make mistakes; we get the instructions wrong and God needs to put us back on track by changing where we are going.

2) God has something better for you. Where you were might have been great but actually God has something better for you. He closes doors, so he can open new ones and give you something even better than you already have.

3) Time for change. Sometimes our plan changes because God wants to change what are doing. It could be that God has called you to something else and by altering your plan, he is helping you get there. Sometimes he wants to change us, we have to go through hard times to grow.

4) It is unclear! And then sometimes it is really unclear why things are changing. There are times when we don’t know why we are going through things, but we have to keep going and one day it will become clear.

In all of these reasons God is in the centre and all of them lead to more goodness from God in your life! This alone is enough for me to really trust God! I know, no matter how I feel or how bad things seem; if God is making changes then it means he loves me and he wants great things for me. I know that he is moving in and around me right now.

To really trust God’s plan – believe and see how much he wants good for you. Understand that your circumstances are temporary, and that hardship leads to blessings.

So whatever change of plan you are facing today – go confidently knowing that God is moving in your life and he wants so much good for you!

Faithfully,

Becky