God’s Thoughts Are Not Our Thoughts

I had to learn a hard lesson this week. 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 

I learned that when I felt conflicted or unsure after praying, it wasn’t because God wasn’t directing me, it was because I was stuck in my own understanding. 

This is also in regards to those whose lives He is working in. I get these thoughts sometime like, Oh, I think I should try to reach that person with the gospel, they seem so close to believing,  and then when I do I get nowhere. But then out of the blue someone else will contact me, who I would never expect, and God is so clearly working in their life it just floors me. That’s who He wants me to talk to. 

Or God clearly directs me to reach out to someone, and I just shake my head. They seem so far from grace what could I ever say that would make any difference. But then when I do get in touch with them, or more often than not I somehow run into them, I find out that God is already doing incredible things in their lives that I had no idea about at all. 

Or I hear about some horrible situation and I think, there is just no hope for that. But then God takes that horrible situation and makes beauty from ashes and once again I am amazed. 

We serve a great God, whose thoughts and ways are infinitely higher than ours. So we need to stop leaning on our own understanding and ask Him for His! 

This is what's going on my letter board this week: "My thoughts are not your thoughts!" 

I read this quote from Lysa TerKeurst yesterday: “God’s ways are sometimes the opposite of what we want and expect. This can be difficult on the human heart. Especially when we’re carrying around all of our expectations and ideas of how and when God should answer our prayers. It can also make us prone to missing God’s answers when we get attached to the outcomes of our own thinking.” 

Maybe there are hard things you are struggling with right now. Pray about them, God promises to give wisdom to those who ask. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5 

Just open your heart to His answers. Don’t allow your thoughts to block out His.