I recently found myself reflecting upon a simple yet significant moment I witnessed over the summer break earlier this year. I spent a lot of this break at the beach; there is nothing quite like watching the waves roll to shore for a bit of serenity! As I watched all the people that were gathered there, I was taken by the child debating to step his feet into the water. He would creep closer to the water as the wave rolled out and then run as fast as his feet would allow to keep him from having the water from the next wave rush over his feet.
This had me thinking.
How often do we debate about stepping out of our comfort zone to experience the new? How often do we slip on a ‘comfortable pair of shoes’ to avoid the uncomfortable need for change? My biggest question was why are we so afraid to trust God with the parts of our story that are not yet clear to us?
The intricate plan that God has woven into our tapestries goes far and beyond what we can even begin to imagine or comprehend. But how do we learn to trust God with the unknown and trust Him we he is calling us to do something out of our comfort zone?
I’ll be sharing a bit from the book Isaiah through this post and I am going to start with this verse. Isaiah 46:9-10
“For I am God – I alone! I am God and there is no one else like me. Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass.”
This verse says to me – God has you and I covered. He knows what is planned for us, He knows the people, circumstances and the experiences He is going to give us, and He knows how we will handle it. He promises us that He will equip us with what we need to be able to go forth into all He has called us to do ( Hebrews 13:20-21).
Sometimes we like to remain comfortable (like wearing an old comfy pair of shoes) and just go about our day to day lives. However sometimes after being in the ‘comfortable zone’ for a while, we sometimes need to be stretched to ‘wear in’ a new pair of shoes. Have you been like the child at the beach racing towards the water? Then somewhere between running and hitting the water something clicks in your head going ‘No! I’m going to get wet and that water might be cold’ or ‘I better not do that, because I might not like it’.
I have. For me it has mostly been in the form of conversations. We have those moments where we don’t want to have that tough conversation with someone or lack the courage to start a conversation that God may be pressing on our hearts to pursue. Remember that He equips us with everything that we need to accomplish all He has called us to do. Is God calling you to wear in a new pair of shoes?
How do we know when we are meant to put on the new pair of shoes? Or run towards that water?
Isaiah 48:17 Says
“ The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, who says: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good and leads you along the paths you should follow”.
I believe in order to do this we need to be still and trust. Be still and know He is God .
He is God above the noise, above the desires, above the fears, above the doubt, above the lonely hearts, above the brokenness, above the finances and above the unexpected. When we place God at the centre and take our hands ‘off the steering wheel’ rest assured that He has taken over.
Are you walking down the road in that old pair of shoes because it is comfortable?
Letting go of that steering wheel is hard when you are on a road that you are certain you are meant to be on, especially when it seems comfortable. Realising that it is not what God has planned is sometimes a difficult realisation.
I have been there. I have been on that road where I could see things falling into place and pre-empted what God was doing. To find out that I had taken the steering wheel and started driving down the road I was sure God was calling me down.
Do you know how I realised this wasn’t the path I was meant to go down?
I lacked peace.
I was so consumed with the direction I was heading that I didn’t take the moment to be still long enough to assess my peace. I was comfortable but deep down lacked peace. God used that experience to grow me, show me the concept of grace and strengthen me for the new season He was about to call me into.
Once you have let go of that steering wheel and surrendered it to God you are filled with peace. Yes, things around you may still be chaotic and crazy but you have peace flowing through you (peace like a river actually, as it says in Isaiah).
When you take a step back and don’t have your hands on that steering wheel you can see God working in little but significant ways. There is such a freedom in knowing that He goes before us in everything and God is never early, never late – always on time.
“I alone am God, the first and the last”
(Isaiah 48:12 )
Blessings,
Madeline x
Woven into the Tapestry 