Stop, Turn Around

Stop, Turn Around
When we try to reach dreams, hopes, and desires that God places within our hearts, I have found that sometimes it feels like taking a journey on a long highway, or road leading to an unknown destination. As we travel along what I will call road trips, we know there is an ending point, but how to get there is sometimes a mystery, and unless we have clear directions or instructions from someone who has made the trip before us, we will most likely become lost. Road trips are necessary if we are going to fulfill God’s plan for our lives, but the direction that we set out to take might not necessarily be the route that God wants us to use.
One important note is that God’s call on our lives does not necessarily mean he wants us all to be ministers of the gospel either. He does call us to into different professions. The key I have discovered through my own prayer life and listening to other powerful people of God is that the Holy Spirit will direct our careers for the good of everyone. This might not include our own selfish needs, and for sure His will is never contrary to his word, the Bible.
I as a writer, I choose to write books which have a happy ending. Even though some of them are worldly themed and have scenes filled with dangerous adventures, fantasy places, odd characters, people with volatile behaviors, non-graphic sensuality, romance, murder, and even death, they mimic the life as it exists on this earth. I specialize in spiritual overtones in my writing; God is always in control, He loves, forgives, and offers hope to even those that might be unlovable. It is the great love of the Holy Spirit that floods my heart to write about God’s great mercy for the unhappy, and his grace to the villain, as well as the hero.
When we take a road trip, a good GPS system helps us navigate along unfamiliar pathways, but it is only reliable if it can reach a satellite feed or if its maps are updated. This is how our journeys to reach God's plans for our lives are, and when we are too busy to spend time in prayer and communion with God, to get up-to-date information, reaching His desires for us is like following an outdated GPS system. With outdated equipment, we run into road closures, dead ends, and hindrances which are unexpected and when this occurs, the dream sometimes seem so far away, and it becomes to wearisome to reach God’s plan.
I have to tell you that I have been the victim of this ignorance, and in some of my efforts to follow God’s leading, I missed his direction because I was not sure what to expect, or just didn’t listen carefully to the Holy Spirit. In these times, I ended up turning around from following my dream, causing myself stress, agitation, and sometimes hopelessness. This happened because I allowed my own self will to dictate the outcome, and although I started out with the best intentions to follow and trust God, my anxieties, confusions, and the hindrances stopped me from finishing the race or finding God's will.
However, now as I proceed towards my dream, I remember what Jesus told me. Matthew 7:14 (ESV) “For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life…”
And
Philippians 1:6 (KJV) “Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
Today, I understand that God in his faithfulness uses roadblocks to stop my own bullheadedness since He knows the pathway of my own design is leads to problems that could defeat or destroy me, and not just hold me back. God's interference, not satan’s, works out for my good, and after I have time to think about its outcome produces, I thank God he closes doors. The beauty of having God close a door is, not only that he keeps me from making a terrible mistake, but He also opens a much better one. Romans 8:28-29 (KJV) says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Stop, Turn Around