Are you trying to figure out and understand everything that has been happening in your life but you can't? Are the situations in your life right now not making sense to you despite knowing the plans of God for your life? Are you tired and almost want to give up?
The first thing that you should probably do is to stop understanding, stop trying to figure out and let go. Let go of all the blurry thoughts and situations in life that don't make any sense because you are not going to understand them all at once. Proverbs 3 verse 5 says that we are not to rely on our own understanding but to simply trust in the Lord. God knows what He is doing and He is the first Person that you can surely trust.
Take Joseph from the book of Genesis as an example. God intended him to become the ruler next to Pharaoh but he went through situations he probably had never imagined. Cortni Marrazzo said, "While I've never been sold into slavery or wrongfully imprisoned, I have had life go differently than what I had imagined, seemingly in the opposite direction of the dreams God had placed in my heart." Therefore, you are not alone in such struggles with life.
Here are 3 difficult situations Joseph went through which you could take as encouragements when you feel like giving up:
1. Imagine Joseph living a perfect life with his family when it all drastically changed and altered by the jealousy of his older brothers who ended up selling him into slavery. Out of the blue, Joseph's life had changed. He was taken away from his comfort zone called home to become a slave in a foreign land.
If you are in an uncomfortable situation right now or if you are confronted by an uncomfortable circumstance take courage that God is getting you closer to your destiny just like Joseph. Joseph's destiny was not in his hometown but in Egypt, where God intended him to become the ruler next to the pharaoh.
2. Joseph was wrongfully accused and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
Can you imagine the pain Joseph had to go through? After being sold by his brothers, he was accused for something he did not do leading him to a life behind bars.
Sometimes, not all situations go according to how we imagined or wanted it to be. Along the way, something could go really wrong. But as what Marrazzo said, it was "the very situations that matured him, tested him, and ultimately set him up for God's plan to be manifested through him. In one of these major setbacks, we see the true, noble character that was the core of who Joseph was."
The setbacks in your life are there for reasons. God may also be developing your character, strengthening your faith and molding you to become Christ-like.
3. Lastly, Joseph WAITED. Nothing is more painful than probably waiting, especially when it's extra-long period. Like most believers too, Joseph waited for such a long time before God's plan came to pass in his life. It is in the waiting period that we are tested and refined through fire so that we would come out as pure as gold and pleasing unto the Lord.
But the overall point of the matter is God's plan for your life will surely come to pass. He will not fail in fulfilling His promises for your life. Nothing can stop the plans of God from happening in your life.
What's currently happening in your life today doesn't mean it's going to be the same in the future. Like Joseph, God has a plan for your life. As long as you don't give up, keep moving forward and God will accomplish his plans for your life.
"'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 (Jeremiah 29:11).'"
