When you decide to choose God’s invitation to do life with Him, you will constantly find yourself going through seasons of unlearning or “Undoing” as the singer, DOE, would say. About eight months ago, God told me it was time to move to a new place, start fresh, and embrace this journey of living in His divine destiny for me. This all sounds great, in fact, it’s been the most beautiful journey I’ve ever taken, but I was scared, y’all. I was terrified, and I didn’t know why. I had been wanting to move out for a while; I wanted a fresh start, I wanted to be another step closer to living out God’s plans for me. Yet when God presented the opportunity on a silver platter, I was hesitant and excited all at the same time. I gave God my yes, with the assumption that I knew exactly how this process was gonna go. Just know that my assumptions were way off. This process showed me many things about myself. From that beautiful August day to this very moment writing this devotional to you, God continues to show me things I must unlearn.
When we surrender our lives to Christ, we’re relinquishing our desire to control our own lives and entrust them with the Creator of it; but we still have our flesh.
We still have our desires and cravings for at least some sense of ownership. We still have our own terms and conditions for our lives. We have our preferences, prejudices, and pleasantries. The terms and conditions we sometimes have a hard time breaking free of are often learned and developed over time. There were thoughts and perspectives I had adopted through my life experiences as well as the opinions and fears others projected onto me. I realized that there had been some things that I, for some strange reason, had yet to let go of. I’ve come to learn that sometimes we have a hard time letting go of what we’ve always known because we’ve become accustomed to who those thoughts and behaviors shaped us to be. When our definition of ourselves collides with God’s truth about us, we have to take a step back and see if who we believe we are is in alignment with who God says we are. And if it is, we shouldn’t feel like imposters living in the life God has designed for us.
Accepting God’s terms and conditions is not easy, nor is it cute! Coming to see what the world has placed in you and how it’s piled on top of what God has placed in you can be heavy, but it’s necessary in order to be taken where God wants to lead you.
Regardless of what the world may say, I believe that keeping yourself humble is the best position to be in. Knowing you don’t know everything. Understanding that there’s always something to learn. Being adaptable to God’s next adventures.
Being prepared for the next level of glory He wishes to take you to. We can’t be prepared if we’re not humble, and being humble looks like reading the terms and conditions God set. I’ve heard it said that too often we look at the Bible as a mirror to ourselves when it should be viewed as a window to us seeing who God is as well. When we see Him, He shows us to ourselves because our identity is embedded in Him.
Through every season, challenge, and opportunity, that identity grows, it shifts, and we get to enjoy a newness of life that God has been waiting for us to arrive at. My pastor recommends that every day we need to do a check-in with God and ask Him, “Who am I?” You may need a reminder, you may stumble into something new, or maybe God has to show you what’s always been there, but you just couldn’t see. Whatever it is, when He tells you, no matter how hard it is, do all you can to believe it and He’ll put you where you need to be to walk in it.
