God’s Ways

Four years ago, God pulled me into writing for Him. To my mind it made no sense. A math teacher jumping tracks to write?! But God’s ways are not our ways.

I attended my first writers conference in November 2020. The year of the pandemic and social distancing.

With fear gripping the globe, the annual writers conference, typically held over Memorial Day weekend, was pushed into the fall. Good thing. Writing was not even in my thoughts until June of that year.

The last day of the conference, I heard from my sister. She and our brother had received terminal diagnoses. I realized then, just because God calls us to something doesn’t mean the road will be easy.

God Knows Our Needs

When I attended my second writers conference six months later, I was ready to quit this journey. What was God thinking? Either He blew it, or I heard incorrectly. Since He’s perfect, it must have been my hearing. Emotional over what was happening with my siblings, weary over the idea of learning something so foreign to me as the world of writing, and absolutely certain I didn’t belong in this arena, I went to the conference believing it would be my last.

Have you ever watched your Father go before you? Make a way? Pave a path because He loves you and wants His best for you more than you want it?

That year, every talk I heard dealt with encouraging the writer on her journey, because the journey is hard. “If God called you, you don’t quit.” It was as if my Father told each speaker what was in my heart and what I needed to hear.

God Speaks To Our Hearts

Today I returned from my fifth writers conference in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Writers from across the continent gathered to encourage and be encouraged, to learn and practice what would help their mission, to be still and gain direction from their Creator.

One of the keynote speakers this year spoke at my second conference, the one I attended when I was ready to quit. I had the joy of telling her this week how much her words meant to me three years ago. That year, God used her and others to make it clear He wanted me to keep on the path He prepared for me.

Confirming God’s call didn’t mean the days suddenly were easy. My heart struggled with multiple losses of loved ones over the past three years. And global crises continued to dominate the world scene, causing tension for us all. But when we hear our Father’s voice saying which way to go, we can go with confidence even when we are weary.

God Works In His Time

All of us need encouragement in this life. Our world was in chaos when God sent me to the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference the first time, and chaos still describes our world today. Fear and confusion, anxiety and depression loom large over everyone. People ask, is there a God? If there is, and He is good, why does He let evil hit hard and continuously? And if He is Sovereign, can’t He put an end to the chaos in our world?

These are age-old questions, and while I can’t answer them to everyone’s satisfaction, here’s a slice of my heart as we face the world in which we live.

There is a God, and He is in control. His name in Hebrew is יְהֹוָה, often in English called YHWH, Yahweh, Yehova or Jehovah. He is the Great I Am. The Almighty Creator of the universe. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This God is all-powerful and is able to stop all of us with a word of His mouth if He desires. We only live because He created us and gives us breath to breathe each day. Jehovah can and will put an end to the chaos in our world, in His time.

We may believe He should do that now. Not later. But this is where we need to remember, God doesn’t think like we do.

God Loves And Is Good

The Lord of Hosts is Sovereign, but He is also merciful and good. He knows that without His provision, we are a people without hope. So He entered our world of chaos in the flesh. Emmanuel, God with us. The Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to show us the Father (John 14:9). And He came that we might have life in His name (John 20:31). As Jesus told Nicodemus, we “must be born again” (John 3:3, KJV). Why? Because born into this world doesn’t make us ready for the next. And the loving Creator desires all His creations to have life with Him forever.

But there’s a choice to be made. God in His goodness, loves us enough to allow us to choose Him or reject Him. Sadly many reject their Creator and allow the enemy of their souls freedom to run rampant in our world. Our Father sees it, and weeps.

The Almighty’s goodness is so perfect, He knows we need Him, and He wants us with Him, but He won’t push Himself on us. Instead, He made a way for us to escape this world of chaos. And, for a time, delays His return and His destruction of the enemy for the purpose of giving souls here more time to choose between life and death. Heaven and hell. Eternity with the good and perfect King of kings, or eternity separated from all that is right and true.

Choose God’s Way

My heart is heavy with the evil in our world. The enemy, the father of lies, is a master at deception. Sadly many are tricked into believing a lie and miss the truth. Our Creator is good. He loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him. Period. But while we’re here, a battle is being waged between the truth and a lie, between light and dark, between goodness and evil. Each day we wake up here, we’re entering the battle field. Are we ready?

The Father calls His children to walk with Him as lights in this world. God’s ways are not our ways. But His ways are good. And we are His messengers while here.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.“

Isaiah 55:8-9, NKJV

If God has called you, don’t quit. Whatever it is. If you are called to teach children, teach them truth in love. If He’s called you to raise a family, create peace in your home and let the love of God permeate all you do. If His call is to work a job you think isn’t fitting, remember He knows our hearts and will walk with us in that job until it’s time to move elsewhere. If our Father called you on a mission you didn’t see coming, don’t give up. He has a reason for all He does. And His reasons are good.

No matter our journey on this earth, may we walk with our eyes on Jesus. May our hearts listen well to the voice of the Father. And may we allow the Holy Spirit to order our steps.

God’s ways are different than ours. But thankfully, God’s way is perfect. And that truth strengthens my heart.

God—his way is perfect;
the word of the LORD (Jehovah) is pure.
He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the LORD (Jehovah)?
And who is a rock? Only our God.
God—he clothes me with strength
and makes my way perfect.

Psalm 18:30, CSB

(Photos: Taken by Carolyn Thigpen, Black Mountain, NC, May 2024)