Embrace Your Journey

Have you ever said to yourself, “Wow I wish I had that,” or “I wanna be that skinny or have that body,” “I wish I could be a stay at home mom, or vise versa, a working mom.” Have you ever thought, “I wish I was more like” or “I’m glad I’m not like?” Do you ever compare yourself to others, or what they have, or what they don’t have. Often times I catch myself in situations where I tend to compare myself to others, taking away from my journey and blinding me to the blessings God has provided me in my life. I have even gone as far as asking God, why I can’t have, why I don’t have, why I’m not like. My life hasn’t been glamourous and breathtaking, and those of you who know my story know what it entails. I am blessed to have lived both seasons in my life, that of wealth and that of not. There was a time I was learning about materialism and “stuff” when God literally stripped me to nothing but the clothes on my back, to teach me that those clothes were the blessing and that stuff was just that, stuff. Recently I’ve been going through a season to recognize the journey and embrace the wait. I’m a dreamer, a person who believes in the, “Go big or go home.” “Embrace what wait? Recognize what journey?”, “I want it and I want it now!” Why does their ministry thrive and yet mine does not? The answer lies within the race, your race! “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that YOU obtain it.” (1 Corinthians 9:24) We have a lane that God has designed us to be in and how often we stray from it swerving right and left taking our eyes off of Jesus and the prize at the end. Pastor Dan Shields (VRL Lead) states “Comparison is like cancer to contentment”. When we compare it breeds envy and jealousy, it takes trust from God and causes resentments and decline in your growth. Proverbs 14:30 reads,” A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body; jealousy is like cancer to the bones.” I know jealousy is not a word we like to use to describe ourselves in a situation, most of us deter and defend ourselves when called out on jealousy, I get it because I have done the same. I’ve learned to accept the call out as it is and rather than defend it, embrace it and ask God to cleanse me of it, in that is the blessing! 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14) Comparison isn’t just one sided, its also comparing yourself to someone or something that you feel you are better than, as Jesus explains here in the gospel of Luke of the Pharisee to the tax collector. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, God has fashioned you uniquely and the race he has you on has been designed for you to reach the prize at the end. That race is your race not your neighbors, your trials are your trials not his, your successes are yours and vise versa. You have been molded and constructed in such a way that only you can run your race, only you can bring to fruition the calling that God has set forth at that time and in that place. Let us not ask why, instead let us rejoice in gratitude for the breath we have been given and the opportunity that is designed for us. Run without comparison! You are Gods’ masterpiece, trust that his masterpiece is good and marinate in what he is doing NOW. You are a child of God, “But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name.” (John 1:12 NKJV) I challenge you to ask yourself, do you truly trust the masterpiece God has made? “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving,” (1 Timothy 4:4) You are special, let yourself be such! Get out of your own way so that you can rest in the journey God has you on. Stay in your lane and keep your eyes fixed on the Great I am. Where you are is where you need to be. Everyone’s experiences and circumstance is different, he’s given us a mind to make decisions, we have to choose and decipher what the right decision is. Let’s recognize the comparison and game, stop ourselves to pray that Gold reveal to us our next steps. Let us not be the Pharisee and place ourselves on a pedestal, live better than that, do better than that, who are we to exalt ourselves. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Another lesson in trust and in order to get Gods power, you have to give him your trust. You’re a representation of Jesus, a mirror image, created in the image of God, designed to do what Jesus would’ve done in these places and doing these things. God gave you your race as a blessing for you to run! Accept your blessing and go get the prize at the end!