if you mock, you alone will bear the consequences.
Proverbs 9:12
**
A friend and I were speaking about how sometimes you resolve to do something---be consistent with working out, finally work on that business, start that project, learn that skill, etc, and suddenly it’s as though by this resolution, you open the floodgates of opposition.
And it happens, and has happened. And when I look back I see that I should have recognized it in the moment—these things that happen suddenly. A sudden emergency. A sudden distraction. A sudden issue. A sudden headache that lasts long, or only comes when I am attempting to get my work done. All of these things occur suddenly.
Only because you’ve resolved to do the work.
This made me think about destiny, about how much opposition comes when you are about to move into the place God is calling you to. How, all of a sudden, opposition is arising from every direction. How well-meaning advice is pouring in, and because you are unsure of yourself and of what God is saying, you lean into advice that seems wise but is actually evil. You’re being deterred from what God is calling you to. The noise becomes louder if you do not disconnect, fast and pray.
There are so many people invested in our destruction. And there are spiritual forces in high places that will manipulate even those we love to speak and say things that are well-meaning but are not of God.
The path that God outlines has never made sense to me. Doubt and fear slither in because I’m thinking of optics, I’m thinking of logic, I’m thinking of what I don’t have. But destiny is something precious, something that we ought to be careful with, even if we don’t know where it leads. God beautifies, God perfects, God makes whole. But to arrive to that place, breaking and moulding, chiselling, hammering, building and plastering takes place. The same way that your path to achieve your goals does not have to mimic your mentor, your friend, your mother/father, siblings, cousins, neither does the thing that God has for you mimic anyone/anything else.
Destiny isn’t about the moment. It’s about generations down the line. The desire for comfort today should not steal from fulfillment of your purpose, of the God-thing, God’s blessing in your life, otherwise the cost is too high.
Your comfort, acceptance by family and friends, should not cost you your destiny. Do not be like Esau who sold his birth right for bread. Yet here we often are, trading blessings (and time!) for the sake of keeping peace in family; not ruffling feathers, so that we can be comfortable in the moment. But comfort costs something. You may be borrowing from your future, and you’ll never be able to pay it back. You’re creating spiritual and physical deficits that, in the future, will create a greater burden at best, and disgrace at worst.
The thing about trusting God is it’s not a group project. Yes, he brings the right people to help us, encourage us, support us, but it’s an individual choice. You trust when everyone says you’re foolish. You trust when he’s seemingly silent. You trust when you don’t feel it. You trust when you’re deathly afraid. You trust when you don’t have the answer. You trust when the answer or the option seems like a disaster. You choose to trust.
Imagine God gives you a giant vision and you meet someone who has never had to trust God for anything, and they are unwilling or unprepared, or do not have the resilience to endure to see the vision come to pass. But the one who could have done that for you, you allowed people who lack vision to despise. All the grand ideas that you’ve ever had, will remain just that: ideas. You will live in regret, because you chose regret. You will one day lay in your bed, perhaps moments away from death, and you’ll wonder what it could have been if you’d just taken that step of faith, taken that risk, gone against the grain, thrown caution to the wind, trusted God.
Inevitably, in order to fulfill the vision that you have, it’s going to cost something. It will cost your pride. It will cost your comfort. It may cost your reputation amongst those who have decided they know who you are, and what path you ought to take. It will cost you your self-perception, because when God renovates, you’ll become unrecognizable to yourself even. Destiny costs something.
Again, please, don’t let comfort cause you to miss what belongs to you. Don’t let friends and family and acquaintances cause you to miss your blessing. We all have well-meaning people around us, but not all are clued into what God is going to do for those who are called to His purpose. God has a purpose for each and every one, and He doesn’t require the consent of others in how that purpose ought to be established in whom he has chosen.
There are mysteries to this life that even the most learned and the most spiritual and the most-wise cannot comprehend. We are limited in knowledge, and understanding. We know what we know at a particular time, but when God is inviting you to know, or experience, or see what is hidden to others, don’t make it a group discussion. Decide that you’ll accept His invitation. Despise the shame, humiliation and the naysayers; there is joy and glory before you if you’d endure your cross. When God honours and glorifies, the same people will sing your praises...or perhaps will shrink in shame and disgrace. But at least you will not have missed it.
You are not like everyone else. Your life isn’t going to be like everyone else. Don’t sell yourself for mediocrity. Don’t sell yourself for less than God’s best.
**
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead even though you must endure many trials for a little while.
1Peter1:6
