I slowly eased on my horse's back. I had a new horse for this session of horseback riding--more specifically, jumping lessons--and it was my first time getting to know this horse. My horse, Tommy, waited patiently until I cued him to walk forward, and then obediently walked on. Throughout the warmup, I tested his obedience. By halting him when he wasn't expecting it, asking for him to back up at random times, and making him circle around in some corners, I was seeing how much I could trust him to follow my lead. Each time I tested him, he was eager and willing to respond to my cues. He didn't question where I was leading him--even if it seemed random and didn't make much sense to him. He trusted that I knew what I was doing with him. Tommy trusted me to show him what to do next, even if the path wasn't clear to him.
I can't help but realize how different I am than my horse. When God tells me to do something, I'm not always jumping straight up to do it--sometimes I spend more time grumbling about it than listening to Him. I don't know what my life will look like in ten years from now, and often times I wish I could know. When something happens that doesn't make sense to me, my first reaction isn't to trust that God has it in His hands. The King of the universe knows every detail about my life--past, present, and future--and yet it's still a struggle to trust Him with my daily life.
Overall, I'm not like Tommy. I don't think many of us are. I think we all, to some degree or another, don't want to give God full control of our lives and don't want to put our trust completely in Him. It's certainly not easy to do, and it's not something that happens immediately. It's a daily process.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"
Sometimes we get so caught up in looking at the plan of our life. If we can't see what's going to happen and what this plan consists of, we want to take things over for ourselves and try to form our own plans for our life. But Jeremiah 29:11 doesn't say that we know the plans God has for us, it says that God knows the plans He has for us. We're not expected to know God's plan for our lives. We're expected to trust the Planner.
Kayla Joy
