The Narrow Way

I have learned something about walking with Jesus that I wish I had understood a long time ago, people can have an opinion about your life, make decisions that affect your life, misunderstand your heart, close a door in your face, leave you disappointed, or even intentionally try to make your road harder, but they still do not get the final say. That belongs to God, and there is something incredibly freeing about finally understanding that.

For too long, we give people authority in our minds that God never gave them in heaven. Somebody says no, and we think the story is over. Somebody walks away, and we think everything has fallen apart. Somebody decides they don’t see our value, and suddenly we are questioning whether we have any. Somebody tries to block something, delay something, interfere with something, or make life harder than it needed to be, and we start acting like they somehow climbed onto the throne and took God’s seat.

They didn’t.

And they can’t.

Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” I have come to love that verse because it reminds me that there can be a whole lot of planning happening around me, but God’s purpose is still the thing that prevails. People can have plans, the enemy can have plans, and I can even make plans of my own that turn out to be completely wrong, but at the end of the day, Jesus is still Lord.

Joseph’s brothers are one of the greatest examples of this. They didn’t simply dislike Joseph, they actively tried to change the direction of his life. They stripped him of his coat, threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, and went home believing they had successfully removed him from the story. I can only imagine how final that pit must have felt to Joseph. God had given him dreams, and suddenly he was sitting at the bottom of a hole because people who should have loved him decided they didn’t want to see those dreams come true.

But they made one enormous mistake.

They thought the pit was powerful enough to cancel what God had spoken.

It wasn’t.

In fact, the very people who tried to push Joseph away from his purpose unknowingly pushed him in the direction of it. The pit led to Egypt, Egypt eventually led to the palace, and the man they tried to get rid of became the man God used to preserve an entire family during famine.

Sometimes what feels like somebody pushing you backward is actually God allowing your life to move in a direction you could not have planned yourself. Sometimes the door that slammed behind you is the reason you finally turn around and notice the door God has been opening in front of you. Sometimes the thing you cried over because you thought it ruined everything becomes part of the road that takes you exactly where God knew you needed to be.

Joseph eventually stood in front of the same brothers who had harmed him and said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” I don’t think Joseph was pretending what happened didn’t hurt. He wasn’t calling evil good. He was saying something much more powerful: “You did what you did, but God was bigger than what you did.”

Lord, I could shout right there.

Because that means another person’s choices do not have enough power to cancel God’s calling. Somebody else’s bitterness cannot cancel God’s goodness. Their rejection cannot cancel His acceptance. Their decision cannot erase His purpose, and their attempt to close a door cannot stop Jesus from opening one that no person has the authority to shut.

We have to stop giving human beings God-sized power in our minds.

They are people.

God is God.

I am learning to quit exhausting myself trying to figure out what everybody else is doing and start paying attention to what Jesus is doing. I don’t need to defend myself in every room, correct every misunderstanding, or spend my nights worrying about somebody else’s intentions. There comes a point in your walk with Christ when you have to say, “Lord, You saw it, You heard it, You know my heart, and I trust You with the rest.”

There is a peace that comes when you finally realize you don’t have to try to create an outcome because God is already in tomorrow. You don’t have to force every door because the Shepherd knows exactly where He is leading His sheep. You don’t have to convince everyone to understand you because Jesus understands you completely. You don’t even have to make sure everybody who did you wrong eventually realizes they were wrong. God can handle people without appointing you as His assistant.

Our battles belong to God, and sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is keep our heart clean, keep our hands clean, keep loving, keep forgiving, keep praying, keep working, and keep walking toward Jesus while God handles what is happening behind us.

Look at David. Saul had the title, the army, the palace, and the authority to make David’s life miserable. David spent years running from a man who was determined to destroy him, but Saul had something he didn’t understand: he could chase David, but he could not cancel the anointing God had placed on David’s life.

David did not have to kill Saul to become king because God had already spoken.

If God spoke it, you don’t have to become ugly trying to make it happen. You don’t have to become bitter trying to protect it. You don’t have to step outside of who Jesus has called you to be because somebody else stepped outside of who they should have been. Let God be God.

There is joy in realizing that I don’t have to carry everybody else’s behavior around with me. There is joy in knowing I can forgive, release, keep my heart soft, and go enjoy the life Jesus has given me. There is joy in waking up and remembering that this is still the day the Lord has made, even if somebody else woke up determined to have a bad attitude about it. They can have their attitude; I’m keeping my joy.

I’ve given enough days away worrying about things that belonged in God’s hands.

I want my days back.

I want to laugh loudly, love people well, serve wherever Jesus sends me, pray big prayers, expect ridiculous things from a very big God, and stop acting like every obstacle deserves an emergency meeting.

Sometimes an obstacle is just another place for God to show off His faithfulness.

The Red Sea looked like an obstacle until God split it.

The furnace looked like an ending until the fourth Man showed up.

The lions looked hungry until God shut their mouths.

The cross looked like defeat until the tomb came up empty.

So whatever is standing in front of me today, I have too much biblical evidence to believe Jesus suddenly ran out of options.

He didn’t.

He hasn’t.

And He won’t.

People may get a sentence in my story, but they do not get to write the ending. Circumstances may change the scenery, but they do not change the Author. The enemy may throw everything he has at the pages, but he still cannot snatch the pen out of the hand of God.

So I am going to keep walking. I am going to keep loving. I am going to keep forgiving. I am going to keep believing that what God has for me will arrive in His way and in His time, and I am going to keep my eyes on Jesus instead of wearing myself out watching everybody else.

Because after everything I have seen Him do, I know better than to count Jesus out.

People don’t get the final say.

Fear doesn’t get the final say.

Disappointment doesn’t get the final say.

The enemy certainly doesn’t get the final say.

Jesus does.

And if Jesus has the final say, then I have every reason in the world to keep my faith, keep my joy, and keep walking like I know Who is writing the rest of this story.

Love you all so very much,

Annie Stewart Lambert