Have you ever restored or repurposed a piece of furniture?\u00a0\u00a0Did it allow you to alter it or did it cry out in frustration?\u00a0\u00a0\u201cExcuse me, I know that you have this grand idea and all, but I wasn\u2019t made to spend my life in an entryway holding miscellaneous items.\u00a0\u00a0I am a dresser.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Or maybe you heard it exclaim, \u201cWait a minute!\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m all in for a good sanding, but you\u2019re not doing it right.\u00a0\u00a0It needs to be done this way.\u00a0\u00a0Let me show you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m so glad that furniture can\u2019t talk back because I would have heard quite a lot of complaining over the last few months. The problem is that unlike furniture we can. And we do. Have you ever found yourself in a conversation with God that went something like this? \u201cI know I asked you to reveal your purpose for me. I know I told you that I would serve in whatever manner you desired, but…\u201d. Now I have to admit that I\u2019ve struggled with this quite a bit over the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wanted to want what God had in store for me. I desired to desire His will, but when He made it known to me, I balked. Why? Because I had plans. I had set goals. I had attached dreams to these goals and now God wanted me to step out in an entirely new direction where frankly I didn\u2019t want to go. So like an obstinate toddler, I just stopped moving entirely. If I couldn\u2019t proceed where and how I wanted, I would just plop myself down on my backside. Sound familiar? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What in the world was I doing? Why was I standing still when God wanted me to move? Why was I digging my feet into the ground when He trying to push me ever so gently forward? Where was this reluctance coming from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can\u2019t answer for you, but I can for me. I wanted my way over God\u2019s. \u201cCan\u2019t things just go the way I planned for once?\u201d<\/em> I even let fear lie to me. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I have what it takes.\u201d<\/em> I loathe C-H-A-N-G-E and I didn\u2019t want to spend my resources (time and money) on something that wasn\u2019t my idea in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n OUCH! What a stubborn, whiny, and wayward wretch I am. But truthfully this is what my heart has struggled with over the last few months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And so I find myself at the crossroads once again. Why am I so surprised to be here? Do I really believe that one day I will just leave it all at the feet of Jesus and not make it mine? I won\u2019t, I want to but on this side of eternity, surrender is a daily calling. A daily choice to lay aside our agendas and plans, our purposes, our wants and desires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you find yourself fighting God\u2019s new direction for your life, or His repurposing of your gifts; if you want His will for you, but find yourself digging your heels into the ground in obstinance, will you instead choose to lay down those plans you had for your life?\u00a0\u00a0Will you let those dreams go, trusting that God has more in store for you than you can ever dream for yourself?\u00a0\u00a0Will you surrender to the Master\u2019s plan and instead run in abandon the race He has mapped out for you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever restored or repurposed a piece of furniture?\u00a0\u00a0Did it allow you to alter it or did it cry out in frustration?\u00a0\u00a0\u201cExcuse me, I know that you have this grand idea and all, but I wasn\u2019t made to spend my life in an entryway holding miscellaneous items.\u00a0\u00a0I am a dresser.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Or maybe you heard it exclaim, \u201cWait a minute!\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m all in for a good sanding, but you\u2019re not doing it right.\u00a0\u00a0It needs to be done this way.\u00a0\u00a0Let me show you.\u201d I\u2019m so glad that furniture can\u2019t talk back because I would have heard quite a lot of complaining over the last few months. The problem is that unlike furniture we can. And we do. Have you ever found yourself in a conversation with God that went something like this? \u201cI know I asked you to reveal your purpose for me. I know I told you that I would serve in whatever manner you desired, but…\u201d. Now I have to admit that I\u2019ve struggled with this quite a bit over the last year. I wanted to want what God had in store for me. I desired to desire His will, but when He made it known to me, I balked. Why? Because I had plans. I had set goals. I had attached dreams to these goals and now God wanted me to step out in an entirely new direction where frankly I didn\u2019t want to go. So like an obstinate toddler, I just stopped moving entirely. If I couldn\u2019t proceed where and how I wanted, I would just plop myself down on my backside. Sound familiar? What in the world was I doing? Why was I standing still when God wanted me to move? Why was I digging my feet into the ground when He trying to push me ever so gently forward? Where was this reluctance coming from? I can\u2019t answer for you, but I can for me. I wanted my way over God\u2019s. \u201cCan\u2019t things just go the way I planned for once?\u201d I even let fear lie to me. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I have what it takes.\u201d I loathe C-H-A-N-G-E and I didn\u2019t want to spend my resources (time and money) on something that wasn\u2019t my idea in the first place. OUCH! What a stubborn, whiny, and wayward wretch I am. But truthfully this is what my heart has struggled with over the last few months. And so I find myself at the crossroads once again. Why am I so surprised to be here? Do I really believe that one day I will just leave it all at the feet of Jesus and not make it mine? I won\u2019t, I want to but on this side of eternity, surrender is a daily calling. A daily choice to lay aside our agendas and plans, our purposes, our wants and desires. If you find yourself fighting God\u2019s new direction for your life, or His repurposing of your gifts; if you want His will for you, but find yourself digging your heels into the ground in obstinance, will you instead choose to lay down those plans you had for your life?\u00a0\u00a0Will you let those dreams go, trusting that God has more in store for you than you can ever dream for yourself?\u00a0\u00a0Will you surrender to the Master\u2019s plan and instead run in abandon the race He has mapped out for you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faith-e-tales.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}