Have you ever wondered what if…you had been born to another family? Had you not gotten a divorce? Had you not had an abortion? What would you have if you have finished college? The list can just keep on going, fill it in with your list of what ifs. The list can be exhausting causing us great distress if we focus on it. Sometimes we have a list of our failures that is way longer than our successes or at least in our eyes it seems that way. We live with regret about the things we did not do and the things we should have done. Constantly seeing ourselves as less than anyone else.

Wake Up, people! Your life has been exactly as God decided it would be long before you were born. There is nothing you do or choose to do, nothing you have done or did not do that is outside of God’s control. He is Sovereign in every way. Our mistakes are all apart of a much bigger picture. We do not know what the picture looks like or how far along we are in the drawing process. But God does and he never loses sight of what he is doing.

See, we think we can do something that will totally surprise God and cause him to be concerned that this time he cannot help us. This time was too far. God is writing our story. He allows enough mess ups, wake-ups, mountain-top, low valley experiences to mold us and shape us and to draw us ever closer to him. When I look back at my life I am amazed at how far God reached to grab me, but he knew he would and when the day of my salvation came, he reached into my heart and moved me to the altar. All the bumps along the way did not deter me but instead encouraged me to follow him. I needed Jesus, I needed his love, his peace, his healing power.

Jesus intercedes for me in other words, he prays for me. Just as he told Peter he had done for him.

Hebrews 7:25 ” Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints, and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

We have a high priest, who intercedes for us every moment of every day. We have a God who has designed our lives, put us on the path of his choosing and says that we can trust him through it all. Take your what ifs and give them to him. Lay them down. One less burden to carry in your backpack of life. Thank him that through every bad choice, every wrong direction he was with you, somehow using it to guide us ever closer to him. He was keeping us even when we did not feel kept. Thank him for forgiveness that is so final he does not remember the offense.

Here is a new what if…what if you read and pray more. What if you serve others selflessly, what if you choose this day to let him be Lord of your life, what if you surrender it all and take his yoke which he promises is lighter. Matthew 11:29-30 “Take my yoke upon you, learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

What if?