Waiting. Calm. Quiet. Trust. These are all "buzz words" when it comes to God. He has a plan, and we're told over and over again that if we pray and wait He will reveal it to us in His time. Yet waiting and trusting are two of the hardest things for us to do. Our minds get so anxious and loud that we talk over God. Sometimes I think we even make up "signs" that aren't really there just so we can convince ourselves that we're getting an answer. Having complete trust and quieting our minds to wait for God's direction is a huge hurdle. And, as the verse chapter continues past verse 15, it goes on to show that so often not heeding this warning can lead to harm or heartache. This is not to say that God won't redirect us after we make such choices. He gave us freewill so that we could choose, and He won't abandon us if we get off track; but, surely His original path is for our best interest. Does this mean he would keep us from every experiencing bad things? I don't think so, because from those experiences we learn and grow. Just as we cannot know how best to succeed without first failing, we cannot learn without first experiencing the lesson that leads us toward growth. The hope being, of course, that we use what we learn and the growth we achieve to better serve God and His people.
We are currently in the process of buying our first home. And as we move forward with this process I feel like I need to keep repeating this verse to myself over and over again. I know that I'm guilty of searching for signs that probably aren't there. I'm certainly anxious to keep the process moving as quickly as possible, but I also know that I need to be still and just listen. My husband reminded me of this earlier today when he relayed the story of how just yesterday I said we could "table the discussion until tomorrow" about something with the house hunting process, and then 30 minutes later I was sending him an email as I tried to hash it out yet again. My goal, moving forward, is to keep my mind and heart open to God and His plan. I'm going to try to remind myself that I can't run ahead of Him and myself by trying to create my own plans before it's time. He brought us safely to this step of the process, and now we need to keep moving just one step at a time.
