Want more peace, time, and fulfillment?

You know the trouble with reading more than one book at a time while trying to complete other projects only prolongs the amount of time it should really take to read any given book. I can never make up my mind so it's typical of me to read 3-4 books at a time. One of the books I'm slowly working my way through is The Mystery of God's Will by Charles Swindoll; yeah I've been reading it forever.

You want to know who's in charge around here? The One who called the spaces into being, the One who put the clouds in place, the One who established the atmosphere in which we're able to live, the One who separated the seas and the dry land, who gave you breath for your lungs and the ability to think. The One who placed you here, now in time, for His purpose, and the One who with the snap of His divine finger will pull you from life into eternity. Mysterious though our lives may seem, God, and God alone, is in charge.

Heavy as that is, I find relief in it. I'm not in this life running around aimlessly. The Lord has a plan for my life. All things happen for a reason and will ultimately prove to be for his glory alone. I may not have a clear idea of the whole picture but thank God he does. I don't think anymore that we can really "miss" God. We may take a step in a direction that is different that what God would have chosen for us but I believe God immediately makes provisions to get us back around to where he wanted to see us go. He is almighty and all knowing. He knows what we'll say before we say it, what we'll do before we do it. He makes provisions for us accordingly.

We can't just wonder around messing up and doing what we want and expect God to clean up after us. But, if we are diligent and we seek him first we will stay under the hedge of his umbrella of protection. He is a God of love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness. If we miss it, intentionally or otherwise, we are guaranteed to have at least one of those qualities bestowed upon us for help. Forgiveness, always. The Lord is not obligated to sustain us for things he hasn't called us to do so we may be without grace in an area for a season but we'll surely still have his love and mercy. If we commit to something we shouldn't be doing the quickest way to get back under his umbrella and back under his grace is to say "no" to that thing we first said "yes" to. This is tough stuff now, we may actually have to say "no" to someone or back out of a commitment, or be unable to help someone who is counting on us. Huh! Someone may not like us!

The answer is simple. Seek the Lord first and do what he has called you to do. If there isn't grace upon it, don't do it. You'll just end up miserable anyway. Oh, you may get a little bit of glory from on lookers, from man, but in the end, you won't care because you'll be miserable. Doing something you don't want to do, that you don't have time for, and probably for people you don't even like. If we said "yes" to the things we knew God wanted us to do and said "no" to all the things we did to impress others, we'd have so much more time, peace, and fulfillment.