This week, I took an unexpected trip to hospital.

I got ill and needed some assistance with pain relief and hydration. Paramedics felt I needed to see a doctor. So, I boarded an ambulance, straight to my local hospital.

I’ll spare you the gross details of this illness, but there were a few moments in which I had no idea what was happening to my body – it was fighting in a way that my mind could not comprehend. Yet, through it all, I knew that God was with me. I knew, I knew, I knew.

This feels like breakthrough for me: I didn’t rush to condemn myself, or to explain my illness. I just tried to stay focused on the fact that God was with me.

I even prayed for the other people in the queue to see a doctor.

Throughout these events, I felt God whisper to me: “Look how far you have come, Beth.”

This morning, however, I realised that in other areas of my life I have been believing the lie that says: “I will get in the way of what God is doing.”

That I need to exercise more, to eat better, to work harder in order for God to do something in certain areas of my life.

Maybe some of you feel like you need to do something to get a breakthrough. That you need to get some ducks in a row before God can move.

Pray more, prepare yourself to be a good husband or wife, don’t eat chocolate for breakfast, read the right books, don’t mix with those people etc…

I feel quite strongly that some of you think that breakthrough is dependent on you getting your life together, before God can work.

But, what if God is already working?

What if He loves you, He has a plan for you and He will make a way for you, anyway?

When my kids were helpless newborn babies I used to sacrifice so much sleep in order to give them milk that would help them grow and be satisfied. I would also wake up and bop around my room for hours just to comfort them.

I didn’t wait until it was a convenient time, or until they were behaving in a calm manner!

How much more will our father in heaven look after us?

The bible says:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17, NIV.

God is good and His goodness does not change – His love is not conditional, but it is sacrificial. He gave His one and only son so that we could be free from all sin and shame.

It strikes me that some of us need to remember that God is unchanging and generous today, as always. He is not waiting for you to sort your life out before He gives you good and perfect gifts. He is waiting for you to receive those gifts.

I was reading another part of the bible this morning:

[…] the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

Romans 8:26, NIV, my abbreviation.

The Holy Spirit prays for us. God knows that we suffer, He knew that we would need help – so He sent it through His spirit.

God knew we would have weaknesses, so He made a way.

He did not look at our weaknesses and say: “I will send my spirit when you get your life in order.”

He is not afraid of our mess, He knows about our failures, our mistakes and He still gives us all the help and hope we could ever need.

You will not get in the way of God’s amazing plan for your life.

You can wait on God and expect Him to show up.

You can expect the breakthrough because He is faithful, not because you did all the right things.

Romans continues:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Romans 8: 18 – 30, NIV, my exaggerations.

God is the one who works, even when you don’t.

God is the one who knew you would be where you are now, even if you didn’t.

And, to those who are hurting, waiting on a miracle, confused or grieving hoped-for plans: God is the one who is with you.

You don’t have to figure anything out in order for these things to be your living truth, right now.

There are so many of us that believe that we will get in the way of God’s goodness. Some of us believe we have already gotten in the way and that is why we are in a mess, in the first place.

It’s all lies.

Joyce Meyer says that we live in the fruit of what we believe.

That means, if we believe we are getting in the way of God’s blessing, we will do all we can to fix the problem. Some of us might step away from God altogether because we believe we are just not good enough for Him.

Yet, if we believe that we are blessed, not because of anything we have done, we will receive and live in the goodness of what God gives.

If we believe that He is present in our mess, we are able to focus on Him and receive His peace and comfort, even in the hardest moments of our lives.

You won’t get in the way of what God is doing, friend.

He is working and you can’t stop it!

Praying for you.