Each puzzle piece God gives you is part of His plan for you.

Jesus will often give us directions for the things that are going to happen in our lives.  We will often see a path marked out for us that clearly Jesus had planned before we even entered into process.                                              

In John 13:19 Jesus says, I tell you this now before it occurs, so that when it does take place you may be persuaded and believe that I am He (Who I say I am – the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah).   

You know the saying hind sight is twenty – twenty?  We all can look back at the course of our lives and see where we went wrong or where we went right.    Many times we can look back and see God using things in our lives to change us or to encourage us.   Normally, we aren’t able to see these things while we are in the process or at the beginning of the process, usually; it’s after we have worked our way through and are on the other side.  

When we are in the middle of a test, challenge or promotion, in God, we can become very selfish and lose patience.   We are not looking at the big picture, we are so fixated on the immediate emotion and making that stop, we are no longer concerned about what we are meant to learn.

I think that if we would take a step back and see things from a wide angle instead of a narrow one, we might be able to see the path that God has created for us.   

I know in my life, I have seen, after the trial was over, the path that God clearly had created for me.  I could see this path because I was no longer focused on me and what was changing for me, or the pain I was experiencing, or what I was not getting, when I thought I should have it.   

One specific situation comes to mind where I believed God for a relationship and the process was very painful.  I knew that I was doing what God had called me to do, but the process of going through was incredibly tough.  I thought that this person was the person that God had meant for me to have a long term relationship with.   I was wrong!  I knew that the relationship had a purpose and a meaning, but for the life of me I couldn’t see what it was.  I couldn’t see it because I was caught right in the middle of it.  I never took a step back to see the complete picture.  I was living by my emotions and expecting God to catch up to my plans.  

After I went through the process and came to the other side, after many, many nights of prayers and tears, I am able to see that this relationship was not intended to be the forever relationship, but it was intended to change me.    

God took this situation as a way for me to step out of my box and open my eyes wider to the people around me.  God used this situation to end friendships that were not bringing me up, and a way for me to strengthen my need for Him in my life.   God began to move in my life in a way that I never experienced before during this relationship.   

During this very painful time, God strengthened me in a way I never could have imagined.  He pulled me out of a very small box that I had been living in, and allowed for me to explore life outside of my comfort zone.  I learned so many things about myself, like what I truly wanted out of a relationship, and what I was willing to accept and allow.  I learned that the most important relationship for me is the one that I have between myself and God.   I needed to be broken open so that God could work on me.

In looking back on this situation I can see all the ways that God was directing my path.  I can see how God took a situation and allowed me to be changed because of it.  God used this relationship to increase my Faith and Trust in him and less in myself. 

The verse in John 13:19 relates to this situation because a lot of times God is saying, hey, here is what I am going to do in your life.  Here is the path that I want you to travel, I’ve made the way for you to go this way.  When you choose this path you will see me in it and this will strengthen your belief in me.  This will cause you to grow stronger in me and the plans I have for your life.  

God needed to strip me down to nothing, where I had nothing but God to depend on, so that I can learn that he is all I will ever need.   God will go out of his way to direct you but we have to be open to the direction to receive it. 

I wasn’t open to it at first.  I fought against the direction, which caused more pain in the long run.  I wanted to see what I wanted to see, and in that I lost the direction God had intended for me.  I tried to make my own way out of God’s plan.   Just so you know, a little advice from me to you, this isn’t ever going to work.   

I find myself now saying Thank you so much God for not giving me that relationship.  Thank you so much for knowing better than me, and not listening to me when I begged for this relationship to work out.   I was again, trying to make God work out my plan.   I have come to the other side of this lesson and see all the things I learned from it.  I personally prolonged the lesson due to my frustration and working out of my own desires. 

My take away from all of this is try to see the entire picture, and look for God’s hand in it.  Try to step away from making something happen, and allow God to direct you into what he has planned for you.  I am still learning this, but when I find myself trying to operate out of my own desires, I can catch it faster than I did in the past.  

We can never be perfect, but since we know the perfect one, and we have his abilities in us we can call on him to guide us.  Call on Jesus to help give you wisdom and to show you what you are not able to see with your fleshly eyes.  Ask him to reveal his plan to you and then take a moment to let him show you.  Most of all I would say, Let God be God.   There is nothing that you can do that will have more power or anointing on it than what God can do, so let him do it.  Try to be like a puppet and allow God to work through you to raise you up to the next level. 

We have the most perfect potter at our disposal, so allow yourself to be moldable clay for him, and I guarantee that through that process you will be able to see the path God had carved out for you.    When you get to the other side, when you receive what you believe for, or have been raised to the next level, your faith, trust and ability to lean on God will have been strengthened and stretched.  You will have come a step closer to surrendering your life and your ways to the one who knows better than any of us do!