Lost and Finding Joy

Is there something you’ve worked on for years, only to find yourself right back where you started? It may be a relationship you’ve tried mending again and again; or a business you started that hasn’t grown the way you expected; or maybe you’ve been trying to lose weight only to gain it back, or you’ve been fighting an illness. There are parts of our lives we can change, and parts that are beyond our control. Discover your part and leave the rest to God.

There’s a song that I used to listen to so much, that my kids can probably sing it word for word, called, Which Part Is Mine by Michael McLean. It’s a beautiful song. I mention it because there is an inspired message in the words of that song. We all have parts to play in this life. We aren’t meant to sit on the sidelines and just wait on God to fix things. That’s not what is meant by waiting on the Lord. There’s plenty for us to do, and there’s also things we can’t do where we must wait on the Lord and leave the rest to God.

If we want a garden, we don’t pray for a garden and then do nothing. We till the ground, remove the weeds, plant the seeds in fertile ground where the seeds can receive sunlight and water. We may need to help with watering the garden, and even continue keeping the weeds out. The part we can’t do, is sprout the plant, grow the plant, or produce food on it. We can’t control how much rain or sunlight we’ll get. None of it would be possible without nutrients in the ground, or water from rain or rivers. We do our part, wait on the Lord, and leave the rest to God.

The same is true in our own lives.

We may want to mend a relationship. We might have done all we can do, but it’s possible the other person might not want the same thing. Sometimes we try to pull someone up whose mission is solely to pull us down. We can’t do both parts. It takes two to make a relationship work. Sometimes it gets so toxic, and it may not ever be the relationship you’d envisioned. You can still wish them well, take the lessons learned, and leave the rest to God.

We may want to expand our business. We keep doing what we can, where we are, with what we have and we may not be seeing the results we want yet. If we have a strong desire to see this business through, there will come a time when providence will move too and things will increase exponentially. We take our steps, wait on the Lord and leave the rest to God.

We may have been working on our health and we aren’t receiving the results we’ve been praying for. Just like our crops, some things have a longer season to sprout and take form. We want to be sure we are doing our part; then we wait on the Lord with good courage, and leave the rest to God.

God knows the plans he has for our lives. There will always be circumstances beyond our control. If we have a strong desire for anything, that desire is there for a reason. Stay the course. Do your part. Be patient. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and then…leave the rest to God.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

You can listen to the song, Which Part Is Mine, here: https://youtu.be/D7oMWj6nu9I.