Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Growing up, I had a million plans for my life. Maybe you're familiar with that feeling. I wanted to be a policeman. I wanted to be a pilot, an astronaut, a rock star. If you had asked me from one day to the next, the idea of what the plan was for my life probably changed every single day. I still joke 13 years later that I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, because it seems like as soon as I have a plan in place, something in life causes it to change.
Looking back, I'm convinced that if God had shown me everything that was going to happen over the last 13 years, I probably would have pulled a Jonah. I would have chickened out, or I would have been angry at His plans, or I would have been confused and I would have tried to push against it. Or at the very least, I would have shut down and turned away from it.
Our Souls Want Security
Maybe you can relate to that. Thinking back on the years of life and all the stress and anxiety that comes with it, I think we can relate to that problem because when we're confused, what our souls want is a sense of security. The way that we typically look for that security is by taking control. If you're feeling that way, I want to share with you a different way of viewing the complexities of life.
Our Verse of the Day comes from Psalm chapter 138, verse 8. David writes, "The LORD will work out His plans for my life—for Your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for You made me."
David's Life: So Many Highs and Lows
This is one of many psalms that David wrote, but I really love this psalm because it is a psalm that just gives thanks to God for His sovereignty and His goodness.
When you really think about David's life, it gives verses like this so much more depth. It makes it so much more profound.
Consider all of David's life. We meet him when he is a small shepherd, the runt of his family. He's really what you would call a nobody. When Samuel goes to find the next king of Israel, it's little David that he anoints. When the great king Saul is being troubled in his sleep, he hears of this young boy, David, who is renowned for his musical abilities, and he calls him into his palace to soothe him with his songs.
When Israel is afraid of the Philistines and there's this great giant Goliath, and nobody wants to stand against him, David is compelled to grab his sling and a few stones from the river and slay the giant. When David finally becomes king, he commits a great sin with Bathsheba, and he has to face the consequences of this in deep mourning and agony as God restores his heart. When David flees from his own son Absalom in fear for his life, he hides away desperately, waiting for something to change until he finally gets to sit on his throne in peace once more.
So much life, so many highs, and so many lows. I would imagine that if David knew all of this that was going to happen, in that moment as a young boy, as a shepherd, and God said, David, I'm going to call you into something crazy, and He just laid all of it out, I would imagine that would have been overwhelming and probably would have been a lot of fears for tomorrow, knowing what tomorrow is going to hold.
Trust God Day by Day
When I think about my life and I go back and I consider just the crazy thing that God called me into, the times I messed up and God had to work me through it, the times that God called me into an awesome work that required great faith—I think if I had known all that at the start, I would have frozen in fear. But God doesn't want us to worry about tomorrow. He doesn't want us to carry those anxieties. I think if we knew it all, we might not want to see Him finish that work.
Instead, let's trust the words of David here that God knows His plans for our lives. That His faithful love endures forever. Don't worry about tomorrow. Look back at His faithfulness and trust that day by day, He's going to carry you every step of the way.
