Guided by a God outside of time

"God, outside of time, has already faithfully provided, even though my eyes are limited to the present circumstances."
-A much-needed encouragement from a friend today

I wait and wait for the future to be unfolded before me, hoping for certainty, for guidance as to the next step, for any sign of where to go or what to do or how it is all going to come together.

But even as I feel trapped in inaction, God knows and is already guiding me to where I need to be. Trust is my portion, and faithfulness in what He has given to me for now.

On the move

"Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out. At the Lord's command they encamped, and at the Lord's command they set out."
Numbers 9:22-23

The Israelites didn't get to plan. They didn't get to look a month or six months or year or ten years down the line. There was no five-year plan on which they could base their days. They had promises from the Lord, they had commands from the Lord, and they had the Lord's presence, and that was to be enough. They were to honor Him daily, observe the statutes He had put in place, and watch for His presence to move. They were to be ready at all times to follow Him wherever He led, and ready at all times to stay however long He asked. The emphasis, in their daily lives, was not on God's big plan for the Israelites. The emphasis was on honoring Him and obeying His commandments every day, trusting that He had a plan and would give them the information they needed.

"If You say go, we will go;
If You say wait, we will wait.
If You say step out on the water
and they say it can't be done,
we'll fix our eyes on You and we will come."

Trusting Him today for tomorrow

"If we are careful to do our duty, we may trust God with our comfort... Many Christians anticipate evils, questioning what they shall do, and fearing to proceed in the way of duty. But we have no right to anticipate evils, so as to distress ourselves about them. To carnal minds we may appear to act absurdly, but the path of duty is ever the path of safety."
Matthew Henry, in his commentary on Leviticus 25

"Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Jesus, in Matthew 6:33-34

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8

Little by little, I get glimpses of the future, fragments of plans among the oceans of possibility. But more common still is the sense that for the moment I am precisely where I need to be, and my lot at present is to live it out well. There are times of action and movement and change in life-- may we act boldly when required to! But so much of life is to be where we are and to live it well. Tomorrow will come, and we will receive it and make our plans and adjust accordingly, but God has given us only today. What will we do with it?

Betsy Scott Stam

"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me as Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."
-Betsy Scott Stam, quoted in the introduction to Elisabeth Elliot's book Let Me Be A Woman

Elisabeth Elliot copied that prayer into her Bible at age 10 or 11, and look where it took her. Where will it take me?

What is required of us?

I like to plan. I never really thought of myself as that much of a planner, and I never really wrote it all out and put it in concrete terms, but I really like to have a plan. This has become more evident in my life these past few years as less and less things have been certain about the future. I continue to plan out the way I think everything will unfold (the way I would like it to unfold...), to imagine it and count down the days until whatever plan comes to pass.

This is changing, slowly.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21)

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with planning. I think we're called to be wise and to number our days. But when plans become an idol, something to cling to and repeat to ourselves when things seem uncertain, we've gone too far.

I couldn't really tell you what my life will look like more than about 4 months out at this point. I could guess, but that's where I fall back into planning again. But as the Lord gently pries my plans out of my fingertips, He does not leave me empty-handed:

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know what it will look like. I do know that I am to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly with my God, and that is enough.