Things often don’t work out the way we think they should, or when we think they should.  That doesn’t mean they don’t work out.  It only means that our view isn’t as big as God’s plans. 

It’s easy to find doubt creeping in on things of which we once were certain.  It’s easy to talk ourselves out of our certainty or of what we had supported, but these we should recognize for what they are:  tests of faith.  

We were told to lean not to our own understanding, warned that God’s ways are not our ways.  And yet we judge developments and events by our ways and our understanding.  When we’re hit with a curve ball, the first thing shaken is our faith. Often it is taken as truth and is the first fatality.

We doubt we understood, interpreted correctly, had misguided intentions or that spiritual warfare is at play—and all that might be true.  More might also be true.  But faith is hope in the unseen, right?  So isn’t this—the times of doubt and frankly fear–exactly when faith should be stronger not weaker?

Isn’t that when we affirm or confirm that our leaps of faith truly are leaps of faith?

My point isn’t to say that when good sense intervenes, and our every instinct tells us that we’ve veered off path not to turn around.  My point is to say that when we feel we’ve veered off path and are considering the wisdom of turning around, we first act in faith.

In other words, we hit our knees and seek guidance and counsel and wisdom first and not as a last resort.

We are never without God, or in a place where His wisdom and guidance is beyond us.  That’s important to remember.  One of our greatest challenges is in that leaning to our own understanding and not into His counsel and instruction.

Unlike ours, God’s timing is perfect for His plan.  It is incumbent upon us to determine as best we are able His plan and to follow it.  We won’t always hit center-target at it.  But if we can teach ourselves to seek Him first, to do so with a constructive and positive mindset—an open mind and heart—and to listen to the small still voice inside us which is a major communications hub between us and Him, we’ve done our best, and that is all that is required of us.

Often with good intentions, we think we’ll do our part and God will do the rest.  That could be.  But given a choice between that and going to God first, we see the benefit of guidance from the start of His plan.  Even when we don’t see the path, we are sure as certain He does.  Which action not only confirms the leap of faith but provides the surest path for the most productive (and constructive) journey?