Plan, Pray, Perfection

Here's the devotional I shared with the women of Gulf Coast Fellowship at a baby shower:

I was trying to think of what I could talk about that would be applicable for everyone and not just the guests of honor. So I thought I would use my pregnancy experience and elaborate my spiritual journey.

If you’ve heard this story before, you’re gonna hear it again. Eric and I got married a year and a half ago. Early in our engagement we both decided to not have children. We saw the responsibility and we didn’t want it. We saw the freedom and we had a plan to achieve it. Our plan was to pay off all our debt and then be financially free to do whatever we pleased. One thing we forgot to do was double check with the Lord to see if this plan was ok. Apparently it wasn’t and a month after we were married, we realized that I was pregnant. I’ll admit that we were disappointed; disappointed that we weren’t getting our way. Then I remembered my favorite verse Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” If we walk with the Lord on daily basis, if we let go of our hindrances, if we pray for His will then ultimately His desires will become our own desires. So Eric and I quickly embraced this new “plan” knowing that this was God’s will for our lives. We knew He would provide if we just followed Him.

So we had the new plan. We had no clue what was going to happen. We were just trying to get used to living with each other let alone handle a pregnancy! So….we “prayed”. We literally prayed EVERY night for EVERYTHING: the pregnancy, Gavin’s development, no complications, an easy labor and delivery, his health, my health; we even prayed for Gavin’s future and how God will use him in a mighty way. Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” We offered up all of our worries about parenthood, our finances and especially delivering all natural! We wanted this plan to be accomplished and we knew we couldn’t do it without prayer.

Finally, after accepting God’s plan and praying every day, there came “perfection!” James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Through all the physical pain and contractions for 6 hours, I knew there was going to be a reason to rejoice in the end. God answered our prayers because we didn’t have any complications, we had a by-the-book labor and delivery, and we delivered a perfect baby boy. Complete perfection. He even scored a 10 on the Apgar test!

So….I hope you were about to think of your own “plan” for your life. Make sure you run it by the Lord. And then continue to pray on a daily, if not moment by moment basis. Because you will see God’s plan be accomplished and the end result will be pure perfection.