“Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”Amos 3:3 NKJV

“This is not the way it’s supposed to be. God, I HAD PLANS!” In that instant, I heard the still, small voice say, “Did you hear what you just said? YOU had plans.”

I was startled by the boldness of my confession and immediately reminded of Proverbs 19:21,

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is God’s purpose that prevails.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had similar thoughts, how many times I’ve uttered those painful words to myself. This, however, was the first time I’d said them aloud and directly to God. At that moment, like many before and after, I stood face to face with disappointment, broken promises, heartbreak and shattered dreams.

I’d take a wild guess that you have been there too.

I have marked dates on my calendar with the certainty that I’d accomplish a specific goal by that date, only to have my plans completely side railed. I have walked away from opportunities that I knew would have been perfect for me if I’d only gotten the chance. I have ended friendships and relationships that I thought would span a lifetime.

Perhaps most painfully, I have stood over the open graves of people that I love, filled with all of the words never spoken, and moments never shared. All of these losses were tremendous, but the sting of grief that no one ever taught me about was the death of my expectations.

The truth of the matter is we all have plans and we often expect life to go according to those plans but what I have learned and am still learning is that we cannot hold God and life hostage to our expectations. We cannot say that we trust God in one breath and in the next try to control the outcome of our lives. Trusting God means that we must trust that even when He gives us an answer or directive that we do not like, it is still the best possible decision for our lives. When God says “Wait”, or even when He says no, the very best thing we can do is ask Him for the grace to agree.

I do not own the rights to this image. Credits to https://www.pinterest.com/maryjhea/_saved/

Food for thought: Waiting is not a passive process, rather, it is an active process. Like a caterpillar nestled within a cocoon, you will grow while you wait. However, growth consists of separation, shedding, stretching, and letting go…

In my previous blog post, When God says “Wait”, I dove deep into the path God has me on that has required me to let go of many of the things I’ve wanted. In the years since receiving the four-letter directive, “wait” I have had to learn to surrender my desires to God and trade them in for His desires for me over and over again. It has often been a painful process, and if I’m going to be completely honest, I have fought tooth and nail and found myself wrestling with God. I’ve wanted what I’ve wanted and I’ve wanted it my way.

Even in moments when I assumed that God was protecting me, for example, the ending of certain relationships, I still struggled to walk away and give God my firm “yes”. You see, I desired a true and deep, God-centered love but I was willing to settle for mere companionship because I did not want to wait. I chose to remain in uncomfortable and stagnant relationships rather than allowing God to heal my heart and mend every insecurity so that I’d be ready and able to maintain the love He has in store for me.

At the time, it seemed like the easier choice. In hindsight, however, I can see that I would have saved myself so much pain, heartbreak and grief had I asked God for the grace to agree with Him and simply let go of the way I thought things would be.

We must learn to agree with God. We must learn that His ways far surpass our human understanding because He both sees and knows all. Once we believe that we can let go of our expectations and make the decision to agree with His course of actions.

As I write this to you, I have not mastered this skill. My daily prayer is that God will realign my heart’s desires with His desires for me and give me the grace to agree with His decisions whatever they may be.

Nevertheless, I have found that agreement with God creates peace and this is true even when I don’t like what He has said. I am learning to trust that if I am in agreement with Him it is the safest and most graced route possible.

I hope that you learn this too and that your new prayer will be, “God give me the grace to agree.”

The Grace to Agree... When God Says “Wait”