What Got in Your Way?

March 2, 2016

NICKI KOZIARZ

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

I have this little issue. My husband calls it a perspective issue. I’m sure a licensed counselor would call it something fancier.

Here’s the problem …

I pretty much think every craft project I want to work on will take about five minutes to complete and will cost around $5. I have great ideas! They come to me all day. And then I start to move forward with those ideas because, again, in my head it’s simple: 5 dollars, 5 minutes.

Most of the time my optimistic attitude is a great thing.

But when the project becomes more than I originally thought, my perspective suddenly twists to one of “It’s impossible!” and I become a quitter.

Can you relate?

Maybe you had a dream in your heart. You started to pursue it and then … the kids, themarriage, the bills and a million other “the’s” got in the way. I believe people quit things every day without even realizing it. And then the days turn to weeks, weeks to months, months to years and then one day we look back and wonder if it’s too late.

But here’s why I love today’s verse in Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” It reminds me God is still able to accomplish anything in my life, as long as I stay open to His movement.

There are things God wants to accomplish in and through your life. Plans that are still in place and waiting to prevail.

I wonder if God is prompting us to ask the question: What got in the way?

God doesn’t meet us at perfected completion; He meets us wherever we are in our process toward His promise. And sometimes in order to meet us, He needs to reveal the areas where we have allowed our perspective to get clouded.

The past few months I’ve been brushing off some things I quit. With God’s help, I’ve allowed my perspective to be changed, shifted and refined. And through this process I realized that even when my own efforts (or lack of efforts) fail, God’s efforts don’t.

I returned to a few passions, a few desires and a few purposes. All these years I’ve been asking God for “a new this” and “a new that” and it was as if He revealed to me I couldn’t get there until He found me faithful here. It’s like a fresh perspective within the same purpose.

Because what He’s already purposed for my life will still prevail.

I’m not a quitter.

And neither are you.

Just because it looked like it was over the first time, the second time or even the third time, doesn’t mean it’s finished. It just means something got in your way, but now you’re picking it back up.

When our tiniest efforts meet God’s supernatural grace, we begin to experience the blessing of God’s plans prevailing in our lives.

Lord, thank You for the grace You give us when we pick things up again. Help me to be a woman who doesn’t give up on the commitments I’ve made to You or others. I want to see Your plans prevail in my life. Show me what has gotten in the way. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good‚ for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (NIV)

RELATED RESOURCES:
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REFLECT AND RESPOND:
Is there something you quit that you feel God leading you to pick back up?

Identify what got in your way and ask God for wisdom and direction. Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section!