When Plans Are Upset

Christmas is the story of plans being upset. It is also more about people accepting God-sent change. The truth is that no one can experience Christmas and remain unchanged. So the question is whether you are ready to embrace change?

A young man getting ready to be married to a woman suddenly finds his would-be pregnant out of wedlock. He decides to end their plans to get married. But God revealed his will to Joseph in a dream to take her home as his wife telling him that the child conceived is from the Holy Spirit. Joseph obeyed God and embraced change that God send into his life.

What about Mary? She, in all probability, was a teenaged village girl. Her quiet life was suddenly disturbed when the angel came to her with the news that she was going to bear a child–the Son of the Most High God. She was greatly troubled at the news and wondered how it was possible for a virgin to be with child. When she was told that it would happen through the Holy Spirit, she said, “May it be to me as you have said.” She too accepted the change that came.

Most of us forget the fact that the obedience of Joseph and Mary to God’s directions for their life made the First Christmas a reality. It is amazing to note that God uses humble human channels to achieve his purposes. You too are crucial in God’s plan and kingdom. The only thing needed is your readiness to accept change and obey. Will you? If yes, God will accomplish mighty things through you!

Both Joseph and Mary’s expectations about their future were upset by God’s intervention. Yet they understood God’s plan for their lives as better than their own dreams for their future.

But then this acceptance of God’s plan did not come without an initial struggle. For there is always a constant struggle in the heart of a praying man or woman to cut loose from his or her dependency on God and sort matters out in his or her own way.

Therefore their submission to God’s plan and their acceptance of difficulties that came along with it should inspire us to trust God in the dark. He knows where he is leading us to.

Though we all like to be in the driver’s seat and be in control; a life of trust in God demands that we yield the control of our lives to God. In such loss of control comes freedom from worry and care. Along with it comes the understanding that God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts (ref. Isaiah 55:8, 9).

Therefore know that he does never lose what we’ve entrusted to his care. Someday we will be able to look back and see that the ways through which God led us—ways we did not understand and ways which we did not desire for-were best.

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