Every Step of the Way

I have been reading through the book of Genesis this month and there was a theme that emerged from my reading that was very encouraging to me, and I am sharing it in hopes that it would be encouraging to you.

I am in a season of my life that focuses heavily on the future. But, I think if we are honest with ourselves, we have a tendency to always be looking towards the future, no matter how old we are or how faithful God has been in our lives. It is easy for me to be an example of this as a Freshman in college, getting ready to declare a major that I plan on studying for the next few years. I still have found this to be overwhelming. Why? I am not dwelling on the next few years of my life, rather I am thinking and trying to plan for the career of the entirety of my adult life, or my "final destination." Everything I am doing as an undergraduate pre-med biology student is in preparation for further schooling, further clinical experience and research, and a future career. I have been researching what steps I can take now so that I can be successful in a few years when trying to get into higher-level school, and it is all very daunting. My research has produced some fruitful results in some areas but has not produced super coherent results on the whole. This inconsistency has led me to feel some unwarranted stress.

Thinking about the future has led me to ask God, "What am I supposed to be doing with my life?" I think that this is a question we continually ask for our entire lives. There is a piece of us that dwells in uncertainty, which ultimately points us to God. But as for me, right now, I am asking this question in the terms of a career. I am someone who, to a fault, likes to have all the details so I can reach a specific end product. I want the whole set of directions at once so I can reach my final destination, my career. I was somewhat upset at God for not outright revealing the route to get there. But God never promised to. What He does consistently throughout His Word is care for those who are faithful to Him, leading them one step at a time. He knows the whole picture, or our "destination," and we have to trust that He will be one to lead us there. That is what faith is. And we have to remember that our final destination, eternity, is more important than any earthly occupation we could have. We have to trust that His will for our lives is best and that where He places us may change the eternity of others. The place in Scripture that reminded and encouraged me of this was Genesis 22.

This is the chapter of Genesis where Abraham is supposed to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In the past, I have often heard this passage in association with it pointing to God's ultimate sacrifice of His Son. And it certainly does foreshadow this! But in my rereading of this passage, something else stood out to me. I am going to include some verses from chapter 22 now, emphasizing certain phrases:

"After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.”"

(22:1-3 ESV)

"When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood."

(22:9 ESV)

Throughout their journey to the mountain where this sacrifice was supposed to happen, God was leading Abraham to the place where he needed to be, to his destination. Abraham did not need instant clarity because he could trust that God would lead him there. In addition, Abraham was probably uncertain of what would happen once he got to his destination. He was supposed to sacrifice his son, the one who was supposed to carry on his line, the one who was supposed to receive the same blessing as Abraham by God. But despite this, Abraham still trusted God.

This faith is reflected on by the writer of Hebrews, who said:

"By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”"

(Hebrews 11:17-18 ESV)

This serves as a great conviction to me, and maybe it does to you as well. I have not been trusting that God has been leading me where I need to be all along. While this is very convicting, this conviction can be comforting. God wants us to trust that He is leading us where we need to be. I am, for one, thankful that He is in control of my story! He knows the best way for us, and we can take comfort in the fact He is ordering our steps.

This reminded me of Proverbs 16:9, which says that "the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." I have been trying to make my own plan for the way I think my life should go instead of trusting in the Lord's way. I have sinned as I have essentially been saying that my way will be better than His, that I would be a better god over my life than He has been, is, and will be. I think we all have been guilty of this, whether in the instance of career, finances, relationships, etc.. Following our repentance of this sin, we can have assurance that God will be alongside us every step of the way to our destination, providing for us and revealing what we need to be revealed to us. I hope the fact that God is alongside us in our journeys can serve to be as big an encouragement to you as it is to me.

In the grand scheme of things, the idea that God will lead us to our final destination, eternity with Him, is an expectation we get to have because of our faith in Him. When we can trust Him with what might seem to be the mundane motions of life, we can trust our eternity in His hands. We know from His word "that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6 ESV).

Let us surrender our plans and desires to His better plan and will.

Blessings,

Mia