Seek His Heart

Some of the best advice we have been given in this season of unexpected transition came from a friend and leader that had once walked the season we have recently found ourselves in. Having also been on a foreign mission field, and having to return to the States due to the needs of a child, he was familiar with much of what we have been struggling with. Sitting down and discussing all of our options with Brad, he left us with a piece of priceless advice, “Stop trying to read God’s mind, and just seek His heart.” His advice was exactly what we needed in what has easily been the most confusing, and possibly most difficult season of our lives.

The questions in this season have been too numerous to count: Why have us learn Spanish and bring us back to the States where we may not use it? Why let us walk away from good jobs and great ministries to spend two years preparing for a ministry that would never come to be for our family? Why give us a child with such a specific condition that keeps us from living in the one place we have been called?

It has been so easy to get caught up in the why, and question where we feel God is leading us next. However, we have come to realize that the only way we will ever have peace in this season is if we stop trying to read God’s mind, and start reading His heart.

I know His heart is that I obey, no matter the calling, no matter the cost (John 14:15). I know His heart is that I trust Him, knowing that His ways are higher than mine (Proverbs 3:5-6). I know His heart is for the fatherless, not just in Guatemala, but also in Kentucky. I know His heart is for the foreigner living among us, and we just so happen to know what it is like to be an immigrant in an unknown land. I know his heart is for the widow, that she may be loved in her brokenness (James 1:27, Deut. 10:18-19). I know His heart is for me to feed the hungry and show compassion to the poor (Prov. 31:9, Luke 12:33). I know His heart is for the lost, in desperate need of a Savior (Luke 19:10). I know that He makes beautiful things out of broken people (Romans 8:28). I know that we can’t even imagine what He has planned for us.

Do I have the answers for what is ahead for our little tribe? Not at all. But I know God’s heart, and I know that if we seek His heart in all that we do, it will far exceed anything that would have “made sense” to us. So friend, if you find yourself in a season of transition and uncertainty, stop trying to read God’s mind, and just seek His heart.