When God Changes Your Direction

 Earlier this week, I had two concepts that were weighing on my heart. I had full intentions of posting them here today. I had pre-jotted them out in my journal, backed them up with scripture, and even had quotes from other authors to elaborate. However, as I opened up my laptop and started typing, I felt a tug to share a different experience instead. 

Sometimes in life, this change in direction happens on a larger scale. We come into situations and circumstances, fully prepared with talking points and intentions, cozy on our shores, and then we  find ourselves in the midst of it all, completely out at sea.

We find that we have drifted away from our plans and comfort zones, and while it can seem overwhelming, often, it is okay. Sometimes, even, it is better than okay.
Often, it is part of God's plan, even when we don't understand.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts."
​Isaiah 55:9

As we live out our lives seeking God's will for us, we often find ourselves pleasantly surprised by what God has in store for us.

At this very moment, here I sit in a hotel room by the ocean shore, contemplating what God has ahead of me. Over the past year or so of my life, God has been pressing into my heart a vision for my future and guiding my paths.  As the year has gone on, I feel myself approaching closer and closer to the materialization of these things- things I have been praying for and desiring in my heart for many months before. And that, my friends, is terrifying! 

This morning, I prepared for the beloved Devoted women's conference. As we are all encouraged to do, I came with expectation: the expectation to hear a new revelation from God. As I drove here bright and early on this windy March morning, I could feel my own insecurities pushing me to ask God to reveal that perhaps my current path was wrong. Surely, I thought I had misheard his direction and was making a mistake. Surely, He has something different in store for me; something less abundant, because that would be much less intimidating.

But this afternoon, as I was gathered with hundreds of women in God's house, I felt God again and again telling me quite the opposite. My heart was convicted and convinced that everything I have been believing God for IS in fact happening in my life and that I am in deed on the right path, walking with God, and fulfilling his purposes and plans for my life.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."
​ Jeremiah 29:11

So, the next time you find yourself out in the midst of the ocean, far from the shore, and in way over your head, realize that God might be steering your sails in a new direction. And, when you're on that course and a dream feels too big for you to handle on your own, remember who is in your boat.

"Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”"
Matthew 8:23-27