Blog Post: Your Life Is Not What You Make It – It’s What God Makes Of It

Have you ever taken inventory of your life and felt like it doesn’t match where you hoped you’d be by now? Or experienced a lingering disappointment that following Jesus hasn’t taken you where you expected? If you feel this way, you’re not alone. Sometimes when we say “yes” to Jesus, we don’t expect that “yes” would lead to all these twists and turns. Sometimes, a life following God feels like a maze more than a straight shot to destiny. 

Mary’s Yes Was Misunderstood

If your life does not look like you expected it to despite staying faithful to following God, you are in good company. So did Mary, the mother of Jesus. Through her act of devotion and yes to God (Luke 1:38), Mary became pregnant through the Holy Spirit, despite not even being married yet. From an outsider’s point of view, this publicly looked like a scandal, people coming to the incorrect conclusion that Mary had an affair with another man before getting married. Mary likely endured public shame, as people questioned her purity and character. Her life probably looked nothing like she imagined, being a married Jewish woman raising a family.

Yet behind the confusion and scandal, God was orchestrating something greater – a bigger picture playing out. God had a plan for Mary’s life, a great calling to be the mother of the Messiah. It just looked different than society’s standards or understanding at that time. Even with no one fully understanding it, Mary chose to trust God with her life and His bigger plans playing out. It was through Mary’s trust in God’s bigger plan that God was given the glory in her life. She became the mother of the Messiah and is now honored throughout history because of this. 

God’s Plan vs. Human Perspective

It was the same with Jesus’ life and eventual death. People on the outside did not comprehend the necessity to Jesus’ death, Peter going as far as rebuking the idea of it.

In Matthew, it says “Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”” – Matthew 16:22 NLT

Jesus immediately recognized that Peter was speaking out of the wrong place and reprimanded him, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” – Matthew 16:23 NLT

The key here is what Jesus’ said – Peter was looking at things merely from a human point of view, not God’s point of view. We need to be careful that we are not looking at our own lives through a human point of view either. God always is after a bigger picture than our limited human minds can understand at any point in time. Peter could not comprehend at that Jesus’ death was part of God’s bigger plan for bringing salvation to humanity. Similar to anyone looking in at Mary’s life, people could not comprehend that God was bringing Jesus into this world through a virgin birth. 

What If God’s Plan Just Doesn’t Make Sense Yet?

So if your life doesn’t look the way you thought it would – even after faithfully saying “yes” to God – don’t lose heart. You’re in the same company as Mary, and even Jesus Himself. There are things that God wants to do in our lives that just doesn’t make sense in the moment that are part of a much bigger purpose. But it is up to us to still choose to trust Him and trust His leading, even when we don’t understand. Will you keep saying “yes,” believing that what feels unclear now may one day be the very story that reveals His faithfulness? Because He’s always doing more than we can see.