I find that most people have a challenging time adjusting to changes, especially seemingly last-minute redirection.

For instance, we may have certain activities on our calendars that we expect will take place as scheduled. 

But God may have a different schedule for our day, week, month, or year, so unexpected events occur, and we must adjust to God’s leading.

What I need to remember is that I need to change and adjust my preconceived ideas of the details of my day to join God in whatever He has scheduled for me to do. God doesn’t have to change anything. I need to change.

His schedule, His plans, must trump mine!

You have likely heard people say that God gave me a brain, so I should use it. That is absolutely true, but this statement ends just short of the entire truth: God gave me a brain, so I should use it to seek Him. 

In fact, Jesus, In Matthew 6:33 (Amplified Version) states it this way: “But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.”

Matthew 6:33 is lifted from the following passage:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? [How often might we forget how valuable we are to God?] Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34

God wants to make it clear to us that He is our Provider and event Planner [we don’t need to worry about tomorrow]! He is the One we can trust with the details of each day. He has our calendar and “to do” list already in place. Our responsibility is to seek after Him.

Jeremiah 29:11 is always a good reminder: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God is not a kill-joy. God wants to bless us. God wants to encourage us.

However, in order for that to happen, we must remember what Jeremiah 29:12-13 states: “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Again, our responsibility is to use our mind to seek God, to talk with Him, to determine His thoughts, so that we can act according to what His plans are for us.

With that said, we still, in seeking after Him, may not always be in sync with what He has planned for us. It may not be intentional on our part to make our plans different from His, we simply may be heading in the direction we believe He is taking us.

But God will help us to adjust, to join Him in His activity, if we are willing to be flexible (Henry Blackaby). Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us of this: “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 straight your paths.”

There isn’t any better place for us to be, nor any better activity than those God has planned for our lives. 

Since God cares about feeding us and clothing us, He certainly cares about where we should be each moment of each day. 

God cares about the minute details. 

God cares about the big details.

God cares about what matters to us.

God cares about our temporal wellbeing.

God cares about our eternal welfare.

God cares about who we spend our time with, and how we spend our time.

Since God cares about those details, we should want to adjust our lives, and willingly change direction, as He guides us by His Holy Spirit.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” Proverbs 32:8

For those of us who have a living, active, and abiding relationship with God, through Jesus, we have all these promises of His help in guiding our lives, and helping us to be people who are flexible to last-minute life changes. It begins with that relationship, and an openness to “interruptions” in our plans. We should be willing to be “inconvenienced” for God, since it certainly wasn’t “convenient” for Jesus to take on a human body, and to endure all the challenges He faced to pay the penalty for our sins. 

But God raised Him from death, and He is ascended and seated at the Father’s right hand. He will use that same power to help us adjust and to change as He directs the moments of our lives.

When I got married, we immediately moved from New York to California. We NEVER expected to come back to New York. We didn’t even come to visit for nine years. It was definitely more exciting for our family to come visit in California. But God had other plans. He drew us out of darkness into a living relationship with Him through Jesus. A few years later He directed us to move back to New York! That was a radical change, work for my husband, school for our son, and whatever He had planned for me would be different. It meant a lot of changes and adjusting. But God blessed us as we obeyed, and has never stopped guiding, helping and blessing us.  I have complete confidence that He never will! 

He wants to do the same for you.

Will you join me in trusting our amazing Creator God to guide us in His righteous plans, helping us to be flexible and to change as He directs?

If I can assist you on your journey with Jesus, please contact me at: ButGodCares@gmail.com

Living for Jesus, Donna

P.S. If this has helped you, please feel free to share it with others!

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Copyright 2022 Donna Shappy

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