Get it Together

Get it together. Have you ever said these words to yourself? Sometimes I look around and it seems like everyone I see seems to have things "together" and life seems to be cooperating for them. I look at my life, full of mistakes, failures, mishaps, broken pieces, loose ends and insecurities and I wonder why my life can't be like the rest. Why is my torn up road filled with bumps, ditches and valleys, when it seems like everyone else's is smooth and easy.

Sometimes I feel like my life is stagnant. I feel like I'm trudging through water and I'm getting nowhere fast. I feel like I try and try, and no matter what I do, I'm left in the same ditch as when I started. I look around and see others who continually move forward, passing me by, while I'm stuck behind that slow poke in the right lane. Sometimes I question what God's trying to do in my life. Why? Why me? Why this? Why now? Why did this happen? What is Your purpose?

I've told myself to "get it together" many times recently, and quite honestly, I don't think it was a thought from God. Satan is a pretty good deceiver and loves to make us doubt. He loves when we get discouraged, angry or upset. When I tell myself to "get it together" it's usually a result of me not feeling good enough, messing up or comparing myself to others. All of which are things Satan tries to infiltrate into our minds to make us think that they are important, instead of remembering what God tells us. He tells us we are valued, treasured, enough and unique.

When Satan succeeds by discouraging us, it hinders us. Not from only living a joyful life, but a life for God. When we feel like we constantly need to "get things together" we are focusing on how we appear. How we perform. How we act. We get distracted to focus on our heart. How is my heart? How is my example? How is my testimony through this?

When we get our focus off the "appearance" of things and focus on the "meaning" of things it often gives us a different perspective. I don't have to meet up to the expectations that everyone (and myself) have for me. I can look at my intentions. My heart. My motives.

Instead of focusing on what I'm doing, I can focus on my pure intentions. Am I working as hard as I can, even though I may make mistakes? Am I trying to follow and seek after God even though I feel like sometimes I lose my focus? It's nice to know that if I don't constantly have things together God will never stop loving me or accepting me. God does not love us based on anything we can or cannot do. His love isn't opinion or action based. It's not conditional or dependent on what we can offer.

Even when we feel like things are out of control or seem difficult to understand, we can rest assured that God's "got it together." He's got our lives in His hands. And that's the best place for us to be! The next time you feel like telling yourself to "get it together" remember that you don't have to have things together. If you did you would be the one in control of your life. Having control means you make the decisions. Your opinion only matters. You are in charge. You are dominant.

As Christians, we shouldn't be the one's in charge of our lives. We should be giving that control over to God. He's our primary decision maker. He should be the one first in our lives. He's the one we should be going to for guidance, support and wisdom. He's the one who is sovereign and will lead us in the way we should go, not to hurt us, but because it is for our best. We may think the road we're on is difficult, taking forever to get us to our desired destination, or that it is headed in the wrong direction, but God's got a plan. We may think our life is a mess, but it is a mess that God can use for His glory if we are willing to be used by Him. Our lives may not turn out how we planned, but if it's according to God's plan, it far exceeds what great expectations we could ever have for our lives!

On a sidenote, I found this song encouraging that inspired my blog post. Hope you enjoy it!