Often times, God puts our hearts at rest in ways that maybe we didn't see coming, or that we didn't want to come at all. Often times, questions plague us, distract us from daily work, from friendships, from family time, from homework, from anything that we should be doing besides thinking about our issues.
In my case, I was dealing with something that left me with a sense of insecurity, uncertainty, confusion, and many other feelings that, I'll be honest, I just did not need in the middle of my first week of sophomore year of college. I kept asking for an ultimatum, an end to the things that were rolling around in my brain, a sure answer to the questions that I kept asking of myself and sometimes other people.
Last night, by the grace of God, it came. Now, I've said that I strive to make this blog about my mission that has been given to me by God. This mission is often affected by other things life offers. Things like relationships. To keep things short, I just got out of a relationship that I thought would follow me to my mission in Russia, that I thought would be beside me for the rest of my life. But sometimes, even if you have your life planned out, God steps in, especially if He's not a big enough part of it. I see now that He was not in the center but on the outskirts of my first relationship, and I thank Him that He pulled me back to His side, though it was painful to have to be pulled way from my guy.
Any way, in favor of keeping things short, God finally gave me time to talk to this someone, this someone who is now a great friend of mine, who supports me, talks with me, seeks me out for advice, and is exactly what I would want in a great friend. Last night, I was shown just how great a friend that he is, and that he will continue to be. God put my wandering heart at rest, gave me peace in this newly established situation, and I am forever grateful.
Maybe it's not the outcome that I wanted. However, sometimes God shuts us out of "rooms", if you will, that we've gotten too used to. When we realize that door has been shut, we don't even take the time to look at the next room He's put us in. Instead, we turn around, too scared of the new section. We start banging on the door, crying and begging to be let back in to the "norm", the situations that we're so used to, that maybe we've fallen in love with.
And God gives us time. He never pushes us faster than He thinks we can go. But slowly, gently, He wipes away the tears, puts His hands on our shoulders, and turns us around. That's when we see it: the world behind the door. What He shuts us out of is only a small portion of our lives, is only a room that we walked through. When we clear our heads and take a look at the new place that He's "shut us into", we see new people, new opportunities, new situations, new passions, new needs, new successes... The list is completely endless.
Take it from a girl who took two months to see that big, open world. If God has recently shut a door in your life, stop trying that locked handle. Stop pounding on the door. If it's meant to be reopened, God's got the key, and He knows when the best time to reopen will be. Trust in your heavenly Father. He will not ever lead you into a new "room" that He doesn't think you can handle, with His grace.
Blessings on all that you do!
P.S. - A shout-out to my overseas readers! Blogger lets me see where my audience is spaced out, and I have readers from the U.S. (obviously,) but I've also got some readers in China, Germany, and my strongest audience is in Russia!! So God bless you! Thanks for reading!! :)
