God’s Plan Is Greater Than Our Understanding

Do you tell God how to answer your prayers and get hung up on the outcome?

When I feel overwhelmed and so distraught that I can no longer cope, I need to pray. Not controlling prayers, but surrendering prayers. Controlling prayers are when I try to control the outcome and tell God what to do. But the problem is that I don’t honestly know what is best.

Trying to control my life and direct it in stormy conditions, when I don’t even know where we are going, is stressful. It causes me to feel anxious and scared.

But when I can surrender it all to God through prayer, peace floods my soul. Letting God be in control and following His plan is the best way.

God knows the situation.
He sees every obstacle.
And He knows how to get me to where I need and want to be.

Philippians 4:6 KJV
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

So often, I worry about things beyond my control. But when I tell God about my hardships, I invite Him in. Praying is asking for help. And when I can lay my hardships at His feet and trust Him to do what is best for me, I feel peace instead of worry.

Philippians 4:7 KJV
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

That peace is what steadies me when my own understanding falls short.

We don’t have to understand God’s plan, sweet friend. The truth is that His ways are beyond our ways. Even if God explained everything to us, we still wouldn’t understand it because we would be trying to understand something spiritual with our carnal mind.

As I’m writing this, I can see it all so clearly. My problem is that I try to understand God’s plan before I follow it. When God shows me things or wants me to trust Him, I look for all the problems and ways it could go wrong.

Instead of looking for the miracles that are God.

God doesn’t fit in a box. He doesn’t follow our ways or plans. We can’t figure Him out. And that’s a lot of our stress. We get stressed because we can’t see or figure out God’s ways.

We want a plan we can see. We want to know the next step, so we can decide if it’s the right one or not. We spend a lot of our time thinking that things should be different from what they are, and that causes us a great deal of suffering.

I’ve been in it.

Wallowing in the suffering and feeling anger for things that have happened, and fear of what might happen. I’ve been resisting, controlling, and doubting God’s ways and His plan. I hate even to admit those things, but they are true.

Here’s the difference I’ve learned:

  • Control = stress, anxiety, fear.
  • Surrender = peace, trust, freedom.

I feel so stressed because my thoughts are not Godly. They are not aligned with God’s word. Therefore, they feel overwhelming and scary. When I feel this, I need to bring them back to the truth. God gave us the best thought guideline.

Philippians 4:8 KJV
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

God wants us to think good thoughts. While we can’t control the thoughts that come into our minds, we can control what we do with them. Deciding what I choose to believe is within my control.

If we have two options, the enemy will tear us apart over either decision. He will cause doubt in us and keep us in a cycle of worry either way. We can’t do anything right when it comes to the enemy.

So when we feel anxious, overwhelmed, or worry about things, we need to take it before the Lord, and ask Him to help us. God is not scared. He doesn’t doubt His plan. Our Lord has the peace we need.

Today, let’s seek the truth, the pure and lovely things, and discover the good so we can praise God.

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