I'm sitting at Starbucks (and if you know me well, you are probably shocked to see that statement written out), sipping an iced white mocha while I wait for my glasses to be made across the street. Several finches and grackles are flitting around the outdoor seating area, and it made me think of that moment in the Bible when God fed Elijah by sending ravens to him at the brook Cherith (1 Kings Chapter 17).
And then I thought about what Jesus said in Matthew 6 - Don't worry and be anxious. The birds of the air neither sew nor harvest, yet they have all that they need for food. The lilies in the fields are beautiful without toil or work. Solomon was not clothed as beautifully as the lilies are as they grow.
How much more does God love you than He does the lilies and the birds? How much more will He provide for you than He does for these creations? They do not worry, and neither should you.
As I'm listening to the birds and the traffic noise, as I watch the breeze flutter through the azalea bushes planted beside the coffee shop, I realize that I have spent so much time worrying and stressing and caring over things that are not my burden to bear.
It's hard not to let the world's expectations creep in, even when you have a solid foundation in your relationship with God. It’s hard to watch your bank balance dwindle and not know how God will continue to provide. But that's the key to it all – it's not our job to stress about it because it's not our place to know the ways God provides for us all the time.
It's our corrupted human nature to want to know the plan, to see the end from the beginning. To have that certainty in life removes our need for faith, and that’s not how God designed us. Faith without works is dead, but works without faith is insanity. You must have faith before you do the works. You have to understand what God has instructed you to do before going out and trying to do that task.
I see so many places in my life right now where I want to know the plan; I want to see how God is going to make all of these amazing things happen in my life that He has promised me. But it's not my place to understand His ways. The plan and the process are not mine to know. It's my job to trust Him, have full and unyielding faith in what He says He will do, and to step out of the boat when He calls me onto the sea.
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