My Steps are Ordered!!!!...and so are yours!!!

Today is a special day for me.  Today is my birthday!! 35 years old today and I don't feel a day over 30 lol. So I am sitting here thinking and reflecting on this last year.  I have lost relationships, a home, and a job and I have even lost some friends.  But this year I gained Christ for the first time in my life.  For the first time in my life I know which direction I am going and i know, with the help of the Lord, I will get there.  The first song I listened to this year after I rededicated my life back to the Lord was a song by Fred hammond entitled "Your steps are Ordered".  I listened to that song at a time when my life was crumbling around me.  Everything and everyone I loved I was losing.  Mind you I was reaping exactly what I sowed and I knew it.  I was responsible for my actions alone, but that didn't make the pain any less because I knew my part in it.  So I am sitting there crying and listening to this song and praying "Lord how in the world is this for my good? How are you ordering my steps with this?"  I was in pain and I wanted to know what was God's plan for me.  How will I make it out of this mess.  I can't see beyond the pain and frankly it's too much.

I listened to that song that day at least 10 times in a row, possibly more, and I just kept saying through my tears "My steps are Ordered" over and over and over.  This was the beginning of my walk with the Lord; this was the beginning of a new year and life for me.  Since then the Lord has been shaping me and molding me and changing me.  I didn't see it at first because i was blinded by the pain and the struggle.  The more I hurt, the more I prayed.  The more I cried the more I began to seek the Lord in the word.  I wanted to know him so bad at that point (still do) that I studied his word.  I stayed in it.  I started memorizing scripture to help get me through.  See even though I thought I was just pushing through and surviving through my troubles; I had no idea that the Lord was then shaping me and molding me.  Through my pain I was changing into the man of God I am today.  My hunger for the Lord grew and my faith grew.  It was not all roses, but the Lord placed the right Christian family around me to help get me through.

My brother you must know that your steps are ordered in the Lord.

Psalms 37:23 - The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, when he delights in His way.

I memorized this scripture and every time I felt pain come up I remembered that my steps are ordered.  All that you are going through is ordered by the Lord.  She may have left you, but your steps are ordered; you may have lost that job, but your steps are ordered; you may not be in the best financial state, but your steps ARE ORDERED!!!

This single most important thought is what got me through these last eight months.  i thank the lord for putting this scripture in my path and writing it upon my heart.  Know that the Lord is guiding your every step.  Your path is laid out before you and you are walking exactly where the Lord wants you to go.  you may not see it, but by Faith I know the Father has you in his hands.  When your world is crumbling around you brothers, I want you to remember this scripture.  God's word gives strength and it is there for the believer to help guide them and inform them.  Here I am 9 months later and I ended chapter 34 of my life better than I started the last 33 chapters.  The beginning of Chapter 35 feels awesome.  For I am encouraged, I am strong, I am renewed, I am restored, I am redeemed, I am delivered.  All thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I could not have made it on my own and I know it.  I am not that strong.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him; and HE WILL make your paths straight...Prov 3:5-6

I LOVE the book of Proverbs.  Please my brother do not give up; trust in the Lord as he is ordering your steps.  All will become clear in time.  I have learned to be content in all things (Phil 4:11), whatever the situation.  Be content with just having the Lord alone.  If I lose it all and it's just me and Christ, then I am content and happy.  I spent 33 years of my life without the Lord governing me.  I will not spend another day without the Lord leading and guiding me.  I am a commissioned man of God....and I got work to do.