Philippians 4:8-9 (NLT)
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
When we receive a signal for change, and we haven’t prepared ourselves to make the shift, life can quickly become very sour. This is one of those truths that we tend to conveniently forget or neglect, but sooner or later it will come knocking at our doors. Our purpose within God’s Will and Plan does not alter its course. God wove us into His plan for the entire universe individually, uniquely, and distinctively before the foundation of the world. Our path was laid before us even before we were born. Now, it’s our privilege and responsibility to align ourselves accordingly and stay on this path. A signal for change usually occurs when we need to adjust not only the direction we’ve chosen to move in, but sometimes a change in our thoughts and hearts is necessary to get back on this path as well.
The problem often lies within our own personal agendas. We want to be married by a certain time, have kids by a certain time, and obtain other objectives we deem important by a certain time. We’ve adopted a time schedule based on society’s standard of success. Keeping it moving and making things happen normalizes into an everyday routine that we become very accustomed to. This is all well and good when it goes along with our agendas, but when it ceases to meet our expectations, and things go haywire, some of us freak out.
Hiccups and slipups can drastically alter our momentum, and deplete our stamina. Instead of contemplating our spiritual destinies and how we fit into God’s plan, we get irritated about the disruptions and make all kinds of assumptions. “Why didn’t the relationship work out? What is wrong with me that he didn’t want to stay? Why is it that when I take one step forward, I’m forced to take two steps back?” We allow questions like these to lead us to places like “Maybe God isn’t going to bless me…” or “Maybe I’m just destined to fail.”
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 16:11 (NKJV), “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The path that God has laid before us is a straight one, but often the one we’ve chosen for ourselves is wrought with turns, twists, and detours that we can never see coming. When we begin to lean on our own understanding, and neglect to lean solely on Jesus Christ, the end result is a bounce-back that feels like a shockwave to our souls.
These shockwaves are a sign or signal that we’re veering away from the path, and that we need to get plugged into Heavenly Father in a greater way. We need to hear His directives and see the vision of where He desires us to go. This requires us to drill down inwardly. We need to pull away from the worldly distractions of our day, and fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. These are the kinds of thoughts that please the Holy Spirit that indwells us. They cause us to get in step with him. Then we can hear His directives and find our way back to the path, so that the peace of God will be with us.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Shockwaves to Your Soul”, written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2017. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.