The Place Called Home

How is your 2024 going? We’ve almost made it through the first month. Has it been going great? Are there some challenging parts? 

I know I’ve been reevaluating some past habits lately. I always think I’m going to get it together and do so much more than I ever really do. Current me never seems to learn the lessons past me is trying so hard to teach. 

It can be easy to feel like you’ve failed the year already. Maybe you thought 2024 was going to be your year. The year you got your life together and accomplished all the things you wanted to. 

Maybe you feel now like you’re just floating along, landing on random activities as they come to you in hopes that something will stick. I know that’s been true for me a lot lately. It’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind in life. Like everything is passing you by as you sit on the sidelines waiting for your life to start or pick back up. 

Can I encourage you for a second? As someone who’s experienced this exact feeling so frequently, someone who is dealing with that now even. Let me remind you of something that I needed to hear too. 

Your identity is not wrapped up in your usefulness. Your worth is not wrapped up in your usefulness. Your value does not increase with your successes and decrease with your failures. 

Where does your value come from? Your identity? Your worth? 

Where does the value of a piece of clothing come from? Or a car? Or any other thing really? From its creator. We pay more for designer pieces or big brand names than we do for knockoffs or budget brands. 

Who is your Creator? 

God. The greatest Creator. The Creator of every other creator. Of everything. 

He wrote every moment of our lives from before we were ever even a thought. 

He knows where you’re at right now. He knows how you’re feeling. Tell Him about it. He wants to hear. And He’s got peace for you, too. In 1 Peter 5:7, Peter says to cast our anxieties on Him because He cares for us. You’re not too much for Him. You’re not bothering Him. He wants you to bring that to Him. Even if you feel like you’ve brought the same exact issues to Him a million times, He’s not tired of you. He loves you. More than anything else. 

If you feel like you’re falling behind in life, bring that to God and then listen to His response. 

By whose calendar are you falling behind? By whose standards are you failing? 

I want to ask a question that I needed to ask myself too. Who is the lord of your life? God already knows where you’re meant to be and He’s faithful to get us where we need to be if we’re obedient to Him. 

So by whose standards are you failing? 

By Him who is faithful to forgive and faithful to direct and redirect as many times as we need? Him who is so incredibly patient with us? 

Or are you failing by your own standards or those inflicted upon you by someone else? Are you falling behind your own timetable? 

God reminded me in the middle of this prayer that it is by His grace that I have anything at all. It’s by His grace that I have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wash, and things to pick up and put away. 

I have things that I want and things that I feel like I’m failing in or falling behind in, yes. But have I brought those to God and trusted Him to give me what’s mine in the right time and to keep anything that’s not mine from me? 

I haven’t been. He showed me that I had taken my eyes off of Him and put them on myself. I expected myself to be able to make happen all the things I wanted to happen. I stopped trusting Him to be my perfect Provider. 

This is a lesson I’ve had to keep learning. He is perfectly in control. He’s not unaware of me. He hasn’t forgotten me. He won’t change His mind. He’s not tired of me and my hopes and dreams and desires. He knows them. And He expects me to trust Him for them. For everything from my next breath or my next meal to my wildest hopes and dreams. 

Everything that I need, everything that’s meant for me, He will be faithful to provide. He promises. And He doesn’t break any promises. He doesn’t change His mind. He’s in control. 

The more time I spend with Him, the more I’ll know Him and the more I’ll want what He wants. 

Psalm 37 is great for this reminder. He says in verse 4, “delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” The closer you get to Him, He will literally change your heart to want what He wants. He’ll place new desires in your heart that match His will and then He will grant those desires. Verse 5 says to “commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.” 

These are promises. Encouragements. We can trust God to act. We can trust Him with our fears and our dreams. 

Let me also encourage you in this. If you found yourself in this blog post, if you’ve made yourself or anyone else the lord of your life, repent. Acknowledge it. Don’t just nod along and keep it moving. I say this because that was my response at first. God showed me where I was wrong and I agreed with Him and was about to just keep it moving, but He reminded me that there was more to that. I still needed to acknowledge that I had sinned in making myself the higher authority. In seeking my own counsel instead of His. In letting His voice be silenced so I could hear my own complaints over anything else. 

I asked Him to forgive me, knowing that He is faithful to forgive. I thanked Him for His forgiveness and asked Him too to help me hear Him better. To stop drowning out His voice in favor of my own or anyone else’s. To let His voice be the loudest one that drowns out anything else. 

He’s faithful to give counsel. He’s faithful to forgive. He’s faithful to speak if I’ll listen and to listen when I speak, too. He loves me. And He loves you, too. He’s faithful to listen to you and to speak to you. He’s faithful to redirect us, to correct us. We’re not perfect and He knows that. 

So, this month, and for however long you need it, give yourself some grace. Reorient yourself towards God. Let Him be Lord of your life as He’s meant to be. As He is, whether you let Him or not. God is still in control. Let Him be. 

Don’t let the whole world rest on your shoulders. That’s God’s job. And He’s good at it. Instead, take the time to rest at His feet. 

Instead of making 2024 the year that you make all your dreams come true, let it be the year that you let God be God. The year that you understand that that’s not your job. That’s way above your pay grade and way above your qualifications. Let God be God. You be you. 

The Place Called Home