“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9

Have you ever been convinced that God is calling you to do something that was scary? You thought long and hard about it and prayed earnestly before finally taking a huge leap of faith to follow Him, only to find out in the end that it didn’t turn out how you thought God had lead you? This recently happened to me. I was scared to make a particular decision but I was so confident it was what God was calling me to do. After many months of relentless pursuit, the end result turned out much differently than I had anticipated. In fact, if you look at it from a worldly standpoint, it appeared as if I had lost and was completely wrong to have started this journey.

In this moment, it’s easy to question God. Was it really You leading me? Was I deceived? Why did it turn out this way? What purpose did it serve? Was I wrong? 

If you know me, you know I’m a planner. I want to know ahead of time how things are going to work out. So when it comes to changing plans, it’s quite often hard for me to change gears. Throughout my life, I’ve had many opportunities to learn how to deal with this innate personality characteristic. In fact, sometimes I think it’s quite possible that God changes the plan for the sole reason of teaching me how to bend and mold into His plan, despite the one I had in my mind!

But in this situation, I’m not certain yet why things turned out the way they did. I do know this: God’s plan prevailed. He called me to make this decision for a reason. He allowed it to work out differently for a reason. Despite what I personally wanted and thought was best, God had a different idea. And though I have questions and tend to be fearful at times, I know I can trust Him with this. 

You see, we serve a God that knows the future. He knows how each decision made in this moment will affect YOUR future. And if you’ve been around very long at all, you can look back in your life and see the impact, good or bad, of one single decision made. God sees this ahead of time and knows what will happen. We don’t. It’s such a simple concept yet so hard to let go of what we think is best in the moment and leave it in the hands of God.

A God whose thoughts are higher than mine.

A God whose ways are better than mine.

A God whose plan is perfect.

Life is a series of decisions. Some are bad and some are good. But if we let God lead us in those decisions, even if it’s confusing at the time, He will take the reigns from us and lead us into an unknown but exciting territory.

I’m looking forward to seeing how God is going to work through this situation! It isn’t what I originally planned, but if I’ve learned one thing in my life, it’s that my own Godless plans only lead to heartache. I may not ever know what would have happened had I not started down that path, but I trust that He had a purpose for it. I serve a God whose plans are perfect! Even if things are hard and painful and even if I don’t understand.

Whatever you’re going through today, especially if God is taking you down a different path than you originally thought, trust Him. It may not be what you thought but He will not let you down. Sit back and watch Him turn this into something far more beautiful and greater than you could have ever imagined!