I don’t know about you, but I have a bad habit. It’s something that keeps me up at night, something that spins my mind into knots, and something that makes me question everything.
Overthinking.
It could be something that happened an hour ago, a month ago, a year ago. If it impacted me, I’ve probably thought way too much about it. I think, “Maybe if I had done it this way”, “Maybe if I had said this instead”, “Maybe if I was friends with this person instead of that person”, maybe then, things would be different and would go the way I wanted.
If things had just been slightly different, maybe I could have still been in that relationship, could have lived in a different state, could have gone to a different school and met different people. Maybe I could have done this or that, lived here or there, been with this person instead of that person. The maybes. The shoulda coulda wouldas. They can eat you alive if you let them.
Things happened the way they did for a reason: God’s reason.
It doesn’t always make sense to us in the present, but God has a plan for everything. Maybe God ended that relationship for you and just barely let you pass by that person because He has someone better for you in the future. Maybe you said something just the way it needed to be said, so it could catch the right person’s attention.
Maybe you ended up at the school or job you’re at so you could meet the very people that are in your life right now. Maybe those people will help get you exactly where you need to be.
We can spend hours and days worrying about all the mistakes we made in the past. We can think about all the things we did wrong, all the opportunities that we let slip by, and let it fill us with regret. Or, we can find comfort in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.
You may not be where you had planned on being, and life might not be what you expected, but let your mind be put at ease in knowing that God has everything under control. You're not going to just barely miss the right person, barely miss the perfect job, or barely miss His ultimate plan for your life.
If it’s God’s will, it’s going to happen no matter what. We might have to take some detours, but He will always lead us back to the right path. He doesn’t make mistakes, He doesn’t forget about you, and He doesn’t want to see you in a knot because you’re overthinking.
His plan isn’t for us to know, it’s for us to trust. Trust in Him and trust His plan, it’ll all be worth it when we spend eternity with Jesus. Ask God to forgive you of your past mistakes, learn to forgive yourself, and move forward knowing that nothing can prevent you, not even your own mistakes, from God's plan for your life.
