Not Your Timeline

In every stage of life, we all experience something that we struggle with as we walk alongside God. At the current stage that I am in, young adulthood, I have had to learn that I cannot control my future as much as I thought I’d be able to.

I’ve had to realize that my timeline isn't always God’s timeline.

He doesn’t want our timeline, but instead, He’s asking us to trust Him with what He already has for us. I’ve had to accept that my plans for my life aren’t always the plans God has for me and that, my friends, has been one of the hardest pills for me to swallow. I don’t know if you struggle with this, but in case you do, know that you are not alone. Even if your timeline isn’t working out how you planned, I want you to know that God is not done with you. When it feels like our plan has failed, odds are God’s plans are just getting started. We might be exactly where He wants us to be, we just have to be wiling to step into what He has for us.

It is much easier said than done. I have had to learn that we need to stop trying to control things on our own terms because timing is His, not ours. We cannot rush what He already has planned.

We need to accept that the Lord directs our steps no matter how much we plan them (Proverbs 16:9). Drawing from my own experience, I took a year to figure out what God really wanted for me and what I wanted for myself. I am truly thankful that God provided that time for me, He pulled me away from what I thought I wanted to put me in the place that I really needed to be. It took me a while to accept that, but once I did, I was able to sit in the freedom, hope and peace that God so freely gives to us.

I am thankful that I do not have control of my own life timeline, God does.

He has a much better plan that we can even imagine. As Christians, we have to be able to pray and then let God take control. We cannot try and manipulate or force the outcome of what we prayed about. We have to trust God’s timeline, to open the right doors at the right times. Psalm 37:4 tells us to delight in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our heart … He knows our wants and needs and He will give them to us at the right times.

I want you to take a moment and think about what you have been trying to control in your life. What have you been trying to do in your own time instead of God’s?

We might not be able to see where we are headed, but He does.

When you get caught up in all the details of where your life is going, what we need to do instead of rushing to the control impulse and planning tendencies, is turn to God’s word.

Here are some verses you can sit with when you feel the need to control.

• Jeremiah 17:7-8

• Proverbs 3:5

• Psalm 37:4-5

• Matthew 6:34

• Psalm 39:7

• 2 Thessalonians 3:16

These are just a few verses you can start with but there are so many more. Take comfort in the fact that God will guide your life according to His perfect time.