It often seems like life is just a random order of accidents, mistakes, ciaos, and human imperfection. When looking through a fleshly perspective, that’s exactly what life is, but when you put on God’s eyes, the picture changes.
One thing that the Lord has freed me from recently is living in regret; dwelling on “what if” and “if only.” In the words of Pastor Chris Hodges, “if only is a trap.” Our mistakes to us just seem like mistakes. They look like where we have failed. They can bring us shame and hold us back from the destiny God has for us. However, your mistakes don’t have to only produce bad fruit. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done” Genesis 50:20. God can turn your mistake into a testimony. You also don’t have to regret the way things in your life happened, your fault or not. God planned out your life before the earth was even formed. Nothing catches him by surprise.
You may feel that you are a victim of your circumstances. You may not have even done anything wrong, and bad things still happened to you. Just remember, God is a good good father. He wouldn’t put you through pain for no reason. Whenever this happened to me, I found God was usually doing one of two things. He was either putting me through some hurt to save me from an even greater hurt down the road, or he was putting me through something to grow me and give me a bigger pay off later on. “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28. Before you were born, God knew everything about you. He has a plan for you, and it’s one to prosper you (Jeremiah 29:11). Therefore, we can trust him when things seem to be spinning out of control.
I’m a visual learner, so God often gives me visuals to go with the lessons he teaches me. A few months ago, he showed me an image of me walking down a road, and it came to a fork. The path on the left had a thunder storm raging above it, and as far as I could see, the path on the right was clear. God asked me to take the path on the left, and I asked him why. I couldn’t understand why he would ask me to walk into a storm when it could have been avoided. Then God brought me up with him into the clouds, so I could see the end of both the paths. The path on the left that had the storm ended in a sunny, flowery field. The path on the right that had seemed so safe, ended in a forest that was engulfed in flames.
God is so in love with us. It breaks his heart to watch us suffer, so we can trust him when he says to go left when right looks so much more appealing. He would never cause you unconstructive pain. He is working everything together for your good! He doesn’t make mistakes, and there are no accidents. Nothing has happened in your life that God didn’t strategically plan for good. So, whenever things seem most bleak, or like they should’ve turned out differently, look to the father because he is so good, and you are his prized possession. When he won’t take you out of the storm, he will hold your hand and walk through it with you.
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