God knows what we need better than we think we do.
He created us and knows us to the depths of our souls. He knows our desires and the decisions we (want to) make, and He knows if those desires or decisions are good for us. We can sometimes want all kinds of things for ourselves or think we can judge whether something is good for us, but it is not without reason the Bible teaches us not to trust on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6).
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” - Proverbs 3:5-6
Jesus my rock-solid foundation
After my breakup in 2023, my life was no longer on loose sand and I made the decision to start rebuilding my life together with Jesus as my new, rock-solid foundation. After all, everything old had disappeared, and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
From that moment on, I decided to protect myself, my relationship with God, and the plan He has for my life by only allowing into my life what comes from God. And so I have become very attentive to what I fill myself and my time with, what television programs I watch, what I listen to, how I treat my body, and, above all, who I allow into my life.
Through these radical changes, I began to hear God’s voice even better. I sat in His Word for hours, following and being obedient to His voice, and also because of the Biblical education that I received at Charis Bible College, here in the Netherlands, I became more and more rooted in His Word.
My relationship with God has grown enormously since then. But, what was completely new to me was God’s radical protection and direct intervention over me in a Fatherly way.
A while ago I came into contact with a person with whom I shared many encouraging texts, Bible verses, books and our walk with God. The contact was friendly, pleasant and constructive. With the human eye, there was no problem.
Since the breakup, I have tried to protect myself from everything and anyone that is not sent by God, and to be as attentive as possible so that I don’t stray from the narrow path.
Ephesians teaches us to put on our armor and be observant (Ephesians 6:11-18).
But how do you know whether you can let someone into your life or when someone is not sincere? Our own insight can sometimes be so wrong, as I have experienced all too often.
We need God’s discernment so we don’t make the same mistakes again or put ourselves in situations that will ultimately keep us further from God.
This contact developed in to a starting friendship, and we talked a lot about our walk with the Lord and our faith. It was a nice and friendly contact, and went on for a little while until I thought…”let me involve God and ask Him what He actually thinks about it”, and so I included this in my prayers and asked God for discernment.
I prayed and asked God what His idea was about this contact. I still didn’t see anything strange in it; the conversations were encouraging and good. But, “Don’t lean on your own insight, right?” So I asked God, “Lord, what do You actually think of this?” He immediately said, “It’s not what I want for you; I’m taking it away from you.”
WOW! I didn’t see that coming! I didn’t understand it, but despite that, I said, “Okay, Lord, I don’t understand it, but I trust You; I just want what You have for me in my life, your will be done, not mine.”
After that, immediately the next day, I stopped hearing from him and he had disappeared completely from the face of the earth!
God radically and completely stopped all contact. I was astonished and impressed by God’s actions.
Even though I have seen God do many special miracles in recent years with myself or with the people around me, I was still taken aback by this. I was grateful for God’s guidance. Apparently it was not the right person to talk to or not the right time; at that moment, I had no idea why God had made the contact disappear so drastic.
Ask questions to your Father
I learned to ask God questions, He is our Father. While some questions may always remain unanswered, there are plenty of questions that God wants to help us with.
Sometimes you can struggle with things, and you want to gain clarity as to why things can turn out the way they do and learn from it. I felt the same way in this situation. At first, I was impressed for weeks by the fact that God indicated that He would take the person out of my life because it would not be good for me, and this exact thing happened immediately the next day.
But once that had landed, questions arose of “why”; did I overlook something, was I too naive, where had I gone wrong, I wanted to know and learn. I decided to just ask God these questions and I got a detailed answer to that too! I was completely awed and grateful for His protection, but also greatly encouraged by what He spoke to me.
He made me understand, He needed my complete focus on Him at this moment for the sake of His plans, and this was distracting me. He also spoke about why He had protected me; People can sometimes pretend to be so different from what they really are, and just because someone believes in Jesus doesn’t mean their intentions are necessarily right.
Believing in Jesus or actually following Him in everything remain two different things.
“Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?” - Isaiah 2:22
It is not without reason that the Bible teaches us not to rely on people but on God (Isaiah 2:22, Psalm 146:3-4). This was such a valuable lesson for me! I learned that God wants to protect us in everything and that if something is not right, He can immediately take it away from us if we only let Him.
“Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” - Psalm 146:3-4
Keep your eyes on the narrow road
The point is, do we trust Him in everything and not just trust Him, but do we also follow what He tells us to do? This one incident taught me many lessons: God wants to be involved in all our daily affairs, and if we allow Him, He will also intervene when necessary.
What a peaceful and safe feeling this gives! How often have I, and perhaps you too, been hurt by people or have completely misjudged situations because of my, often somewhat naive, thoughts? But as long as we do everything together with Him, He will keep us save and on the narrow path. He will make our paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 25:8-9, Proverbs 4:11).
“I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.” – Proverbs 4:11
I want to encourage you to involve God in everything, whether it be small things like what we should eat tonight or what I should wear, but also who we allow into our lives and the people and friendships we are involved with. People may not always have the right intentions, or it may not be the right time to connect with certain people because God may need your focus at that moment for something completely different. Also, don’t be afraid to ask Him questions. Remember: He is a good Father and wants to guide and help us in everything, as long as we let Him.
