Today, instead of just choosing three ways I see God showing His grace to me, I thought I would write out a list of all of the things I am thankful for right now.
- God being in control. I think it has been easy for me to hear that God is in control, and not really believe it or understand what it means, but lately I have been able to see this in action a lot more. I am so extremely thankful that even though we as humans have free will, God is still the One ultimately in control. Sometimes, it helps me to think of God’s hands like a sifter. God allows us to do things, and the world to go forward as it does, but everything gets sifted through God’s hands, and only what He allows to happen actually happens. I think when there are things that are contrary to God’s plan, or things God does not want to happen, sometimes He intervenes in situations. He has our best at heart, and is always for us. Lately, Proverbs 16:9 has been on my mind; it says, “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” Sometimes it can be painful and frustrating, especially when we make plans and all of the sudden we hit a brick wall, or God takes something or someone from us. However, the God we serve is absolutely trustworthy, and only wants what is best for us.
- God being trustworthy. It can be really hard when we don’t understand something that happens or why it happened, and we are left with a lot of questions. It can be especially hard when whatever it is that happened is not what we wanted or planned. However, I am SO thankful that even when we don’t have all of the answers, our God is 100% someone we can trust, fully. We can still walk forward in peace, not knowing or understanding, because we serve a God Who does know, Who only wants what is best for us, and Who we can fully trust in everything.
- God having a plan for us. In the past, this has been something that has scared me, and made me frustrated at times. As we go through life, we see things we want, and don’t get them, and then we spend time lusting after them and craving them. We can also go through life, see things we want, and get them, and then not want to let go of them. Both of these situations can cause us to hold on to what we want instead of us having open hands and an open heart to what God has for us. This has been the way I have been living for a long time. However, lately, it has been an extremely huge comfort and exciting reality to know that God has a plan for my life. In my mind, there are two parts when it comes to God’s plan.
– First, when I am living for Jesus, and He is Lord of my life, I am His vessel, living surrendered to His will and what He wants, no matter what that looks like. The plan God has for us isn’t all unicorns and rainbows, and He definitely does not promise that it is going to be easy. However, because we are living for Him, we are still called to walk through whatever it looks like, trusting that God is going to guide us and be our strength, and choosing to do it all for His glory.
– The second part is that His plan is more fulfilling and all around better than anything we can plan for our lives. This is the case because He knows us better than we know ourselves, He knows what we need not just what we want, He sees the future, He sees all of the things that go on behind the scenes that we do not see, and He knows all of the details that we don’t. Along with this, God is completely for us, and He has only our best interest at heart because He loves us so much.
This is something that makes me so excited, to the point where I feel like I am going to explode. I want God’s best for my life. We only get one life, one chance to glorify and please God the best we can, and one shot at having the best and most fulfilling life possible. I know God’s best will allow for me to achieve all of these things. - God seeing the future, and other details that we don’t see. Although we can’t see what is going to happen in the future, and don’t have full knowledge of every detail of every situation, God does. He knows the future, sees everything that we don’t, and knows the different outcomes of different scenarios. I am so thankful that when we don’t understand, we can trust Him, because He sees and knows what is best. I love the verse in Proverbs that says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…” (Proverbs 3:5). We can’t depend on our own understanding of things, or knowledge and perspective, because we don’t have all of the information, only God does. The best decision we can make is to trust Him, fully, even when we don’t understand what is happening or why.
- The support and kindness of others. Lately, especially, I have been so blessed with support and kindness from those around me. From buying me Starbucks, sending caring messages, and being a listening ear, to being understanding, praying, and being there in whatever way I might need. I think having the support of others is important for everybody, and also the way Jesus created the body of Christ and the Church to function. I have been so overwhelmed with love and support lately, and I am so extremely grateful.
- Pain. It sucks, it hurts, it’s uncomfortable, and sometimes it’s unbearable. But, it’s also how we grow and become stronger. I’m really, really thankful that God didn’t just create pain to be pointless, because then it would just plain suck. Instead, He decided to make something so messy and awful bring about things that are beautiful, admirable, and exciting. Our pain is not pointless, it is rich in life-giving lessons and growth.
- A personal relationship with God. I recently watched a video, and in it the speaker talked about how when we go through pain, it isn’t a manuscript or set of rules that we need, it is a personal relationship with God. This is something that hit me. God could have easily given us His Word, just as a manuscript on how to live and get through life, and then left us to fend for ourselves. Instead, He actually gave us Himself, and allowed for us to live in this world having a personal, intimate, and two-sided relationship with Him. This is exactly what we need in everything, especially our pain.
- Psychology. Lately I have been thinking a lot about psychology and human development. I think it is so cool to learn about the way our minds and bodies both work and develop over time. Further than this, I think it is absolutely incredible to point all of this back to God and realize He created out minds and bodies in such an intricate, complicated, and exact way. There is a lot we can learn and understand about ourselves from looking at the way our minds and bodies work, and analyzing our development. I am extremely thankful that this is the case, and that God gave us the ability to understand what He created, because there is a lot of healing that can be done in simply understanding ourselves. This excites me so much.
Wow. God. is. good.
