To the girl whose life doesn’t look like what she thought it would…

High school isn’t fulfilling the emptiness

Rush didn’t meet expectations

College isn’t all it’s cracked up to be

Engagements, weddings and baby announcements for others fill your feed

Life looks better on everyone else’s Instagram

You are not alone.

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12

You don’t want what isn’t yours.

So often, we get ahead of God. We do whatever we want to do and then we ask Him to bless it. Or we do whatever we want to do and then ask, “God, where were You?” when it doesn’t go our way.

As I talk to the Lord about these things, He has asked me three questions. I continue hearing Holy Spirit say, “Are you willing to die?

To your flesh
To your own desires
To what you thought it would look like

And choose to trust Me?”

“Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
Trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for Him;”
Psalm 37:3-7

Maybe we don’t ask because we are afraid of the answer
Maybe we don’t ask because we think we know better
Maybe we don’t ask because our eyes are looking in the wrong places
Maybe we don’t ask because everyone else is doing it so it must be fine
Maybe we don’t ask because [blank] is just what we’re supposed to do
Maybe we just forgot to ask
And maybe you do ask and have asked...

Like we see in Psalm 37 and throughout the Bible, we can trust Him. When we delight in Him- we spend time with Him, we grow with Him, we fall in love with Him, we go to Him and depend on Him- His desires become our desires and His desires for our lives will always be better than we can ever ask, think or imagine on our own (Ephesians 3:20).

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:9-11

We compare our lives to others’ but do we think about what deaths have occurred to get them there- whether it be spirit or flesh and what that costs in the dying. Are you willing to die to your flesh for what the Lord has for your spirit?

“Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deprived of its power? For we were co-crucified with him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within us, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin’s power.” Romans‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬ ‭TPT

This walk with Jesus is not just about being willing to die to sin and flesh, but our loving, gentle Dad also asks, “Did I call you to it?”

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you truly want to follow Me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to My ways.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭24‬ ‭TPT‬‬

We can pick a sport/hobby, a college, a sorority, a boyfriend, a husband, a job, a city... the lists go on of the choices we have. But if we don’t ask our Dad first, we can run the risk of being in something He didn’t have for us.

When we completely reject and disown our own lives, and choose what He has called us to, we put Him above whatever we think we “should” have. It might look different than you thought, but when you seek Him first, it will never be less than what He has for you. And what He has for you is always good.

When we fill our lives with things that were not meant to be ours, we don’t leave room for those that are. And if we don’t have time to first go to the Lord to ask what is for us, then we really won’t like it when we have to take more time to do it a second time because we didn’t ask in the first place. He asks, “If you don’t have time to do it well, will you have time to do it again?”

This life is not our own. When we die to our flesh, when we walk worthy of the calling in which He has called us, and we choose to lay down our lives, He promises He will give us the desires of our heart and He promises that those things will be good. Better than we can ask, think or imagine. It might not look like it now, but we can look at His Word, not the internet or others, and know He has never failed and He won’t start with you now.

It might not look like what you thought YET, but good is always coming! Seek Him, trust Him and SEE Him!

You are not alone.
You are His
And He is for you!

“Lord, how wonderful You are!
You have stored up so many good things for us,
like a treasure chest heaped up and spilling over with blessings—
all for those who honor and worship You!
Everybody knows what You can do
for those who turn and hide themselves in You.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭31‬:‭19‬ ‭TPT