“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

The Bible, Romans 8:28, ESV

This verse is known by the most believers. It is the verse with which we try to encourage one another. If you don’t know what to say or tell the people in need or difficult situations, you give them this verse. But the moment you receive this verse, you don’t really like it anymore–I didn’t really like it anymore. It challenged me. I had to believe that everything would work out. But how could it all work out if nothing seemed to be working out in the moment. I couldn’t just ignore this verse that should have encouraged me–it’s written on to my wall in my room. It’s the first thing I see every morning. At a certain point I just had to start believing and trusting the Lord with all my heart.

I love to see results. It is satisfying and encouraging. But when you decide on a path that is not ordinary, you don’t have the results of others as a reference, that would encourage you to go on. There is only you, God and your trust in Him that encourages you to persevere. The perseverance that someday you will see a result.

And let me tell you: Not everyone supports you or understands why you decided to take this path. It may not make sense to them, but if you have peace about it–go for it.

That’s what I did over the past months. I just did it. I declined job offerings, worked six months for free and withdrew my application for University. No one understood my ways but I had peace about it. I just did it. And it all worked out!

Not that it would have been easy.

Through this challenging time I have learned something about prayer, God’s answer and why it sometimes takes longer than we expect.

If God would have answered my prayer right in the beginning, the following things would have never happened (or could have never happened in that way):

• I would have never started working at church and discovered so many things.
• I would have never learned to listen so carefully to God’s voice.
• I would have never realized how people around you can either encourage or distract you.
• I would have lived the same ordinary life that so many other people do.

Over the past months I was completely dependent on God. I realized that I couldn’t do it on my own, there is a God who wants to be my guide, my “door opener”, my “in ear voice”, my protector and my best friend. Not that He couldn’t have given me a job right at the beginning, but He wanted to make all things work together for my good.

With the nine months of perseverance He took me to the next level. A level where I get to rediscover him, and where He reveals himself in a bigger and crazier way. I am both curious and a little nervous what this will look like. But I have definitely learned to fully trust Him and I love the craziness of His plan. How fun it is to be on this path with Him, and having the opportunity to show others how God does in fact work things together for good for those who trust his plan.

People who once tried telling me what to do now come to me for advice. My response is always, ‘pray about it, ask God, and go for it!’

My next blog is about the things he called me to do which I didn’t feel qualified for.