If It’s To Be, It’s Up To Me

If It’s to Be, It’s Up to Me. 

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:13‬

My grandmother used to have this saying written on a post-it note on her mirror. She used to say it all the time. I think she heard it at a management seminar or somewhere along there in her mid life. 

My grandmother became the first female mayor of a small town where I grew up. She believed that if something was going to get done, she had to believe in herself and she had to do it. 

It’s not a bad self-help, self-motivated type of thought process. Unfortunately, for what I believe, it couldn’t be further from the truth.  

Things can be up to us to get done, but that doesn’t make all things possible. It certainly doesn’t guarantee an outcome. It only provides a mechanism for things to happen, good and bad. 

I travelled that pattern of thought for a long time. Too stubborn to relinquish control and allow someone else to make mistakes. I preferred to do it the way I wanted and knew, instead of allowing someone else to learn and possibly fail along the way by doing it for me. It was the whole, perfectionist to a fault thing. 

To think that we somehow control the outcome is benign. We control the behavior and God controls the outcome. As long as we stay inside His Will, He will provide for us. 

Sure we can do what we want. We have free will. We can make choices, decisions and manipulate things the way we desire them to be. It doesn’t mean God will bless it. And it certainly doesn’t mean it will end well. 

God will put hurdles, speed bumps and even roadblocks in our life when we go outside of His Will. For some these could be tragic, for others, they might not even notice. 

Ever wonder why things pile up in our lives and we feel like nothing is going right? Our finances get crazy, our family life starts down a bumpy road and things at work get frustrating. Are you moving outside of Gods Will? I was.  God’s Will for us is to be in a relationship with Him. It’s that simple. There is more to it - but that’s where it starts. 

God can sometimes try and get your attention very subtly and if you’re not paying close attention - He will try harder. 

Not everything is planned out for you, even though God has a plan for you. Make sense? You can still alter that plan by going out of God’s Will. He wants you to come to Him and to be blessed by His plan for you, but you can screw that up all by yourself by ignoring your relationship with God. 

It’s not up to you. But you can believe what you want. 

I’ve lived it first hand. Happy at times, miserable at most, trying to please myself and societies ideas of success. It only caused pain. Either self induced or to others in my life. 

As much as I wanted to believe that, if it was going to be, it would be up to me. I had nothing to do with it - nothing at all. 

Life isn’t always glorious and spectacular. But it can be peaceful. We can choose to live a life honoring God and making choices pleasing to Him. Our blessings will be many and our souls will be eternally saved.  We can live a life that glorifies God to the fullest. It is possible to stay inside of His Will. 

I wish my grandmother was still alive so I could finish that written note for her - 

If it’s to be, it’s up to me, to follow in God’s Will. 

Have a blessed day. 

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭1:1‬

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

‭‭James‬ ‭4:8-10‬