As humans, we like to be able to control the things around us (one reason why a lot of marriages fail, I believe, but that's another blog post for another time), but you see, God likes to have control even more than we do, but the thing is, that He is all powerful, so unlike when we are in control, when He controls things, it works. But we don't like to give Him control, and we don't like to be without a plan, feeling helpless. So what we do is we like to plan every little detail out, leaving no room for His will at all.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
He has a plan for you. No matter how old you are, no matter where you are in life, He has a perfect plan. He has every detail of your life planned out perfectly, it's when we take control ourselves that things start to go wrong. When we take control bad things happen, messes are made, people are broken. But there's something great...God likes to take our messes, our bad situations, and our brokenness and turn them into something beautiful. Yes, that's right, I said beautiful.
Take Mary for example. There she is, minding her own business when one day, out of the blue, an angel appears to her, telling her that she's with child, and that the child she's carrying is going to be the long awaited Savior and Messiah that her people have been expecting for hundreds of years. But that wasn't in her plans! Her plan was to marry Joseph, the carpenter, and have a few children down the road maybe once she got out of her teens, and live a nice life with him. But God threw her a curve ball...He gave her some lemons. She must have initially thought that her world was coming to an end. What were her parents going to say about this baby? Joseph would surely break off the engagement! But God had even that taken care of, and what beautiful things came out of her confusing, seemingly hopeless situation!
Think about Abraham. Here he is, over one hundred years old at this point, God had been faithful in providing him and Sarah, even in their old age, with the promised son, Isaac. Isaac was to be the beginning of generations of offspring for Abraham, and then, all of a sudden, God tells Abraham to sacrifice this promised son. Abraham must have been nearly out of his mind! I can imagine Him after God told him this, "Sacrifice?! You mean...KILL my son? The one YOU promised and provided for me? You have GOT to be kidding, God." But God was not kidding, He was dead serious (no pun intended...well, maybe a little was intended), and He wanted to see how Abraham would respond. God threw Abraham some lemons.
What about Ruth? Here she is, recently married with no children, and then all of a sudden, her husband, along with her brother-in-law and father-in-law are dead. The only family she has is her sister-in-law, Orpah, and her mother-in-law, Naomi. What on earth is she supposed to do? She has nowhere to go, no one to turn to. God tells her to remain with Naomi and He provided everything for the two women, and He had a plan all the way to the end, even in bringing Ruth to Boaz.
So really, it isn't about the lemons or why they've been thrown. It's about what you do with them. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Making lemonade means to surrender yourself and your plans to the Lord and to learn to have complete and total faith in Him, the one who threw the lemons. No matter what things are happening in your life, know that God has a perfect plan for you and whatever the situation is. He can make something beautiful out of anything.
"Going a little farther, He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.' "
{Matthew 26:39}
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