Here it comes....

Walking into work this morning, I had my usual in hand-coffee, handbag, lunch tote. It is cloudy today, didn’t watch the weather forecast but clearly we are due for rain. Sure enough, as I stepped up the sidewalk to my building, it began to sprinkle. I stopped to pull my umbrella from my handbag and all I could think was, “Lord, please hold off the downpour until I can get inside to my office…”

God’s timing is perfect, and well it was so true for my morning today. Between a word I heard on the radio, my morning devotional and what occurred as I made my way in to work, it was evident He was speaking very clearly to me about something.

‘Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.’ Proverbs 19:21 ESV

It is all good and fine when we have a plan. Day to day, we all have our planned pattern of events from the time we rise in the morning to the time we fall into bed at night. Most of us have established a routine of life, some of us have a busier routine than others, but it is our routine nonetheless. When something unexpected occurs in life, or several somethings unexpected occur and we are suddenly standing face to face with the threat of a downpour, how do we respond? Do we frantically search for protection, shelter, scamper into the closest place of refuge? Or do we consider standing firm, recognizing the impending downpour is quite possibly the shake up our lives may need?

Life guarantees no good thing, but we are certain to experience a whole lot of unexpected circumstances. As we watch God allow these events to unfold, we need to press into Him and seek His greater purpose beyond what we can see right in front of us. I’m finding it to be true for me, often that pressing in is against my preference. I’m tired, life has beaten me up some days more than others, and honestly I would much rather kick my shoes off and crawl back into bed and hide under my soft, fluffy comforter, safe and warm. It is in those times, when I push beyond my preference, call upon the Holy Spirit residing deep within, and ask Him to embolden me to press on, I find my faith is stretched, strengthened, and I am restored to a place of greater confidence and trust in the God who orchestrates it all. I don’t have to do that, I could choose to give in to my own selfish needs and desires. I could choose to become complacent and bitter, wallowing in this pit of my own making. Or, I could rise, choose to lean into the Father and call upon the power of the name of Jesus, and stand through what is right before me. Stand-often times only by the strength of those around me, my family and my friends, who hold me up with the power of prayer, with their encouragement, mentoring and unconditional love, because I have none left on my own. Stand-primarily because I have given up all I know within my own strength, and recognize very quickly I am nothing without my God and He is absolutely enough. When the downpour comes, I won’t run but will welcome it as the refresh that my soul needs.

His purpose for us can become blurred, muddied when we get stuck in the routine of life. It is in those moments that we need to dig far more deeply, seek Him with greater desperation, and relinquish the parts of us we’ve allowed to become numb to all that is occurring around us, so that He can do the necessary work in us. We cannot be complete, whole in Him in our days on this earth, we are on that road. The journey is life long, and His purpose is unfolding before us a little bit more every single day.

Join me in standing as the downpour approaches, and let’s walk in it and trust God to do His work in us.