Lindsay Mercado No Comments

If you’re anything like me, planning is in your nature. You love knowing the next steps, how to get from point A to point B, and knowing what you want the next several months or even years to look like. Mapping out goals, planning out the next five years, and even writing out a budget are things that get me excited. 

So, at the beginning of 2023, I fasted and prayed for next steps from God. I was looking into real estate investing or starting a business, but I wasn’t sure which way to go. I wanted clarity and direction on what to pursue. What I got was the farthest answer from what I expected or even wanted. I felt like God told me to quit my job.

Did I quit immediately? Nope. I tried to negotiate with God because we had bills and I had a budget and our finances didn’t work without me working. As much as I argued, God made it all the more clear that I needed to quit and I couldn’t pretend I didn’t hear or understand Him. 

I knew my options were to either quit my job or knowingly disobey my Father, but I had no idea how God would provide for me and my family. 

Maybe you feel like you’re at a crossroads in life where you feel like the next thing God is nudging you to do isn’t what you were planning to do, and maybe you shouldn’t even do it because of the impracticality or difficulty of it. I get it. When I quit my job, I was on the verge of a promotion and actually got the offer on my last day of work. But here’s the thing: The faith part of our relationship with God is doing what He says even when we don’t see the full picture.

In Deuteronomy 29:29, as Moses is speaking to the Israelites right before he dies and they enter the promised land, he tells them “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

God doesn’t give us the entire plan. The secret things belong to the Lord. We get to know what we need to know in order to be obedient, and sometimes nothing more. 

So, maybe you’re in a place where you feel so sure of what God is saying, so confident in what you are supposed to do next, but it just doesn’t make any sense so you question if it really was God. Maybe it’s moving to another country, joining the military, going back to school, walking away from that relationship, writing a book, starting a Bible study, switching majors, or founding a nonprofit. Maybe it even excites you a little, but you feel like if you do it, you are going to look totally crazy because it’s not the right time, you won’t make enough money, you’ll have to start over, you’re getting too old, or whatever other excuse you come up with. 

I remember how that felt. Looking at my budget and telling God there was absolutely no way for the numbers to work out. Having to tell my husband that I felt so strongly that I had to quit my job or tell God “no” to what I was so absolutely sure He was telling me to do. Telling my family after I had already quit (because I worried they might talk me out of it if I told them before).

I looked crazy. As layoffs were flying through the news in the tech industry, here I was willingly walking away. I liked my job, loved my team, and made a good salary. Not only did I look ridiculous, but it was also hard to leave something secure and comfortable for the unknown. 

We have this idea that if we plan well and work really hard, then things will go well for us. Sure, maybe it’s true that our plans can turn out good, but our plans alone will never be God-good. They will never overcome impossibilities, defy the odds, or truly make a lasting, eternal impact. 

Only God can do that. We only get to be a part of it when we partner with Him.

But maybe you feel unqualified for what God is leading you to. Maybe you were rejected the last time you applied or you didn’t pass that test the first time. Maybe you don’t have all the qualifications for that job or maybe you think you’d never be successful at it. Maybe you don’t know anyone in that city or country, so you think you’d be alone. That’s okay. 

God uses improbabilities to make impossibilities realities. 

He used an Egyptian-adopted Israelite turned murderer with a speech impediment to lead God’s people out of slavery to the promised land, a woman who had been divorced five times to proclaim the Messiah to a non-Jewish town, and a former Christian-hating killer to spread the gospel of Jesus. 

I’m betting that Moses, the Samaritan woman at the well, and Paul all felt unqualified following God’s call for them. But they did it. So what if it seems impossible? That’s when God shows up and does the miraculous. 

As we look around the world, people can prosper in any situation. You can prosper as a single or married person, with or without kids, with a middle school education or a doctorate degree. You can also fail in each of those. It’s not what we do that leads to our success, it’s our obedience to the call of God on our lives and our alignment with our Creator. An artist would probably make a terrible lawyer and vice versa. Not everyone can be a doctor, a professor, or a best-selling author, but we can be all obedient. Obedience is not about ability, experience, accolades, or intellect; it’s about willingness.

Deuteronomy 26:16-19 says, “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”

Notice that the only thing God’s people are instructed to do is walk in His ways, keep His commands, and obey His voice. Then, God does the rest for His people, setting them in praise and fame and honor high above all nations. While the original context of this verse is to the Israelites, I believe God does the same for us. If we obey His voice and follow Him, He takes care of the rest, and being the good Father He is, it is better than we could ever do or imagine on our own. Our business is obedience, God’s business is the outcome.

If you’re afraid to do what God is calling you to do, it’s okay. God’s plans are bigger than what you could ever do on your own and in your own strength. Honestly, I think that’s the point.

Isaiah 41:10 says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” God doesn’t expect us to be fearless, He promises that He will be with us, strengthen us, and uphold us as we move in the direction He’s leading us.

Why do you think Jesus made the disciples leave everything to follow Him? So they could be fully devoted, completely attentive, or entirely available? Probably. And probably also so that they were reliant on Him. They desperately needed His guidance and leading every single day. They had to trust Him and rely on Him completely.

What I’ve come to learn in this season is simple – God provides and He’s trustworthy. When I quit my job, we had two months of runway before we’d be in debt. As I write this six months later, I’ve seen God manage my bank account better than I ever could. 

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus gives us the assurance of God’s provision for us. He says, “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

I want to remind you of this, too. God is the provider of everything. He gives us every single thing. Our job, house, family, income. So who are we to tell Him where it should come from? Who am I to tell my Creator that I could be more effective, successful, or happy pursuing my plan rather than doing the thing He created me to do? He takes care of the birds and the flowers, so surely He will provide for you and me, too. Trust His leading and take the next step; He is with you.

Xoxo,

Lindsay

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