To Thrive Is To Trust & Obey

Can you believe January is almost over already?! At this time a lot of people have given up on their New Years resolutions and are feeling behind before they’ve barely started. People have gotten back into the rhythm and routines of their lives. Things have started to get busy. It can be easy to start feeling overwhelmed with the busyness, the hustle and just life around you.

There seems to be no break in sight. There’s always something on the list to be done, cross one off add three more things. It’s overwhelming and you can start to feel stressed, but we were not meant to live stressed and overwhelmed. We were not created to feel like we can never get on top of things. We are not meant to live hopeless that this is the only way. The lie is that to be successful we must be busy and overwhelmed. Productivity is not a partner of stress and busy-ness. Nor, should it be the parter of perfectionism. We need to live with peace. Peace, is Jesus Himself.

How can we live stress free, while staying on top of everything. How can we manage our own lives, hearts, souls, minds and spirits the way God designed it.
Well I’ve been asking myself this…
I don’t think I have it totally figured out, but here’s what I do know.

He is the Prince of Peace.

Peace comes from Jesus, not from crossing things off of lists, from having nothing to do or having a lot to do. Peace comes from Jesus.
Our identity needs to be fully locked in Him. Not in what we do, what we finish or anything else for that matter. Just let Him be who He is. He is inside us, He is peace. You have full access to peace; peace abides in you.
Don’t try and be lord of your life. It’s extremely exhausting and stressful. You will constantly feel overwhelmed, because you can’t handle it. He is God. He has what we need. Only He satisfies. Only He carries peace. We need more of Him. That’s the bottom line. I just need more of Him. Why do we let ourselves go through life without Him at the very core and centre of everything.. We were created to live with Him being the core of everything. His presence and peace is a gift, that we get to receive.

“We just need more of Him.” 

If you are feeling like you can’t handle your life anymore, it’s because you can’t and the problem is that you are trying to. He wants us to give everything to Him. Everything. Everything that weighs us down. Everything that we wish we were doing.  Every dream and plan. Every day. Every frustration. Every moment of fun and relaxtion. Our jobs, our schools, every relationship. We need Him!

When He is King over our lives, He reigns and His peace covers us. His love fills us. He leads us. We just can’t be Him so we need to stop trying to. You can not do this on your own. Ask Him what you should be doing, what you shouldn’t be doing, what you should focus on, what you shouldn’t focus on, what hobbies you should enjoy, what people to be friends with, who not to be friends with. He knows how He’s designed us. He has the keys of us thriving. The key to thriving is letting Him, be Him in your life. Thriving is in Giving up control, trusting & obeying the one who designed you.

 “The key to thriving is letting Him, be Him in your life. Thriving is in Giving up control, trusting & obeying the one who designed you. “

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, (NIV, www.biblegateway.com)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

We get to trust Him and let Him be the one who understands, not us. It’s His love and kindness that we get to give everything to Him. We get to give Him the reigns and He will make our paths straight. When we let Him be the leader of everything, we will thrive in our life just how He designed us to.

To thrive is to trust and obey. To trust is to give up our right to understand everything. I’m not just talking big things, trusting God for the future or for Him to turn a bad situation around and use it for good. I am talking about thriving daily, meaning to trust daily. Trusting that what God prioritsies in your life, is what you should prioritise, even when you don’t know why. If He asks you to do something, (if you feel a leaning and prompting to) but there’s something on your list above that, do what He says. When we prioritise Him, we prioritise what He prioritises. We lay down our personal lordship of our day to day and trust Him with everything. When He is control, and we remember that He is the prince of peace, that means Peace is in control. Peace Himself is managing your life, Peace is your life-coach. That sounds like thriving to me!

“To thrive is to trust and obey. To trust is to give up our right to understand everything. “

If life all came down to formulas, habits, routines and personality tests, that would mean to live a good life we have to understand everything. Don’t get me wrong I love all of those things, they can be very helpful. There is nothing wrong with them, except for when they just become tools for you to be the lord of your life. When actually we just need to listen, obey and trust what He says, not listen, understand and obey. More of Him is the key to thriving. Obedience to Him is the key to thriving.

“More of Him is the key to thriving. Obedience to Him is the key to thriving.”

I don’t want to waste my time focusing on and being troubled by something that He never wanted me to be troubled by. I love what Bill Johnson says, “I can’t afford to have a single thought about me, that He doesn’t have about me.” Well, I can’t afford to live any way other than how He wants me to. He is kind, He is gentle, He is love. He is not a slave-driver, He is not an evil master. He wants to take the load off us and let us ride with peace and grace in everything.

He wants you to thrive more than anyone. He knows you and understands you more than even you do. Let Him be who He is, don’t try and be lord of your life. Give Him complete control in every area big and small. Let Him be peace. Let Peace be the manger of you and your life. Trust Him, listen to Him, obey Him. To thrive is to trust and obey.