When God Throws You a Curve Ball
Life is full of disappointments and surprises. Broken expectations can bring great hurt. We have all experienced this in some shape or form. There’s a vision in your mind of how things are supposed to be. All seems to be moving in the right direction, and then something happens and changes everything………expectations shattered. This can break our hearts and send us spinning in sadness, frustration, and confusion. How much more difficult it is when it seems God has done it.
Curve balls can be a result of many things. Many times they are of our own making. Over the years in my journey with God there are several things I have had to learn, some I had to learn the hard way. When curve balls rocked my world, the Lord gave me some revelation.
Don’t come to God and keep holding on to your big dreams.
It is not God’s mission to make all our dreams come true. One of the lies of the enemy, a lie that is unfortunately very common in the minds of many Christians — The Lord puts a dream in your heart. You’re supposed to chase after it and make it happen. This is a lie! The truth is this: The Lord has a (dream) plan for your life. Chase after Him, and He will surely make it happen.
Jesus call to follow includes a laying down of all that we are and all that we could pursue other than Jesus (Matt. 16:24-25). Our greatest frustration in life comes when we continue to chase after things that are not God; our plan and not His. If we are pursuing our own dreams, when God starts arranging our path to fit the plan that He has for us, it causes great upheaval in our plans. This usually brings much stress, hurt, confusion, and depression. This can often lead to anger and frustration with God.
There is no way to walk in peace and joy when we are chasing our own dream rather truly chasing after God with all of our heart. When God is our passion and our pursuit, there is no circumstance that can throw us off our mission. It puts our minds and hearts at rest from the concern over circumstance. God can do whatever He wants to lead us in His plan and we can move forward in peace and confidence in Him knowing His plans can never be thwarted (Job 42:2). It is this thinking that led Paul to say, “for me to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). Sometimes the thing we are treasuring is our own dreams and expectations for life. Faith in God means we believe God is the highest treasure — what He has for us is greater than anything we could dream up for ourselves. If you’ve spent your life chasing your dream, one of the best things God can do for you is to shatter your life plan and throw you a curve ball. Then all you are left holding is Him and all you can do is what He asks. You are no longer a slave to a man-made dream.
If you've spent your life chasing your dream, one of the best things God can do for you is to shatter your life plan and throw you a curve ball.
God’s mission is not to protect you from getting hurt.
We are promised that life is going to be hard and we are going to have trouble (John 16:33). When hard times come, loss of a job, betrayal of a friend, loss of someone you love, or circumstances throw your life upside-down, we should not be surprised. Nor should it cause us to lose confidence in God. Every person that God used in a mighty way in scripture went through times of trouble. God did not prevent them from experiencing pain or loss. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, and the Apostles all faced many trials, troubles, and even death. God did not protect them from hurt and hardship. Jesus is the prime example and “a servant is no greater than his master” (John 15:20).
You can’t plan out your life if you want to be surrendered to God.
It is clear throughout all of scripture, we can never be sure of what is going to happen tomorrow. We never know what God might ask of us, or what He might allow to happen in our lives. This is why Jesus gives us fair warning:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13–16)
When Jesus says to take up our cross daily, He is saying that we die to ourselves—our dreams, plans, and desires. He tells us to do this every day. In laying down these things, we choose to accept whatever God has for us. We can certainly ask God for things. We can pray for Him to lead our lives in particular directions. This is good and well. Understanding that all the while God is honing our desires. He ask us to delight in Him and He will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). In our walk with God, God is making us desire Him more and more, and what we want in life changes the more we draw close to Him. God might give a revelation of Himself tomorrow that could change everything we are praying for today.
God might give a revelation of Himself tomorrow that could change everything we are praying for today.
If you can’t be happy where you are, you won’t be happy where you want to be.
True joy and happiness is not a result of circumstances. As Christians, our joy is in Jesus. Part of growing in our relationship with Jesus is a transition from life circumstance being our source of happiness, to Jesus being our source of joy and happiness. If Jesus is my joy, regardless of where He may take me, I can be satisfied and fulfilled in Him. If life brings a curve ball, our joy is not robbed because nothing can separate us from Jesus. Only God can satisfy, and He satisfies regardless of location, financial circumstance, job, education, ministry status, or whatever. If you’re looking or waiting for something outside of God Himself to satisfy you, it is a hopeless pursuit. If you are unhappy right now, you will not be happy if God gives you all that you’re asking.
God is going to send you curve balls.
These curve balls can work to build up our faith. As our faith in Him grows, when curve balls come, we are less impacted in our hearts and minds. We don’t sink into fear and depression. We begin to grow a strength that only comes in trusting God. This is a trust that has been grown and developed over time. If we truly trust God, whatever comes tomorrow will not shake us. It may hurt, it may be difficult, but it can’t shake or break what God has promised and planned for you.
Only God can satisfy, and He satisfies regardless of location, financial circumstance, job, education, ministry status, or whatever. If you’re looking or waiting for something outside of God Himself to satisfy you, it is a hopeless pursuit. One of the best things God can do is throw us a big curve ball. The curve balls show us where our treasure is, what we are trusting and depending on for our joy. Regardless of what may come today or tomorrow, may Jesus be your life pursuit, the source of your joy, and your confidence. If so, you will not be shaken when the curve balls come.
