Ordered Steps are Not Sequential steps" - Pastor Michael Phillips (The Potters House)

 One of the most meaningful remarks I have ever heard in my twenty-something years of existence was made by Pastor Michael Phillips (TPH) during a sermon. "Ordered Steps are not Sequential Steps," he declared. This may seem strange or inaccurate, yet it struck a chord with me right away. 

There is no blueprint for life, therefore even while we may encounter similar things, our experiences and travels will not be the same, even though we may occasionally arrive at the same places. In this literature, "destination" refers to "goals" or more precisely "objectives." Consider your time in school: because we all go through various stages, the folks you start with may not be the ones you end up with. Some students drop out or receive a failing grade.

Men see a "natural" order to things because they are accustomed to using chronological time in their daily lives. This simply implies that since natural rules (such as the law of gravity) control the universe, you cannot die before you are born. Being both the beginning and the end, God is not subject to the laws of time. Pastor Mike Phillips continued by stating that it is difficult to comprehend time from the viewpoint of an everlasting God.

Many people in today's culture are unhappy and enraged because they believe their lives are not going as they had hoped. Some had hoped to be married and driving their dream automobile by now, but this is not their current situation. Some of us have a tendency to feel like failures because our aspirations don't appear to be coming true. We start comparing ourselves to others, which only makes us feel worse psychologically and physically.

In the words of Pastor Toure Roberts, "What if God caused me to desire something that I would be forced to grow up into"? What if my chosen outcome must be preceded by a certain amount of development, insight, and unanticipated events? All of this means that we must acknowledge that the path to our objectives is not as linear as ABC and is instead filled with complexity that we cannot anticipate in advance. In the Bible, Joseph has a vision in which he saw himself seated on a throne, but he was not shown how he arrived there. Many of us have everything planned out, including our time in college, our first job, and even our wedding, but as Mark Twain once said, "climate is what we expect but weather is what we get".

To summarize my entire thesis, never quit up even if your life is not going in the path you would desire. Remember that what appears to be a dead end may actually be a fresh chance. What many of us fail to do is adjust and be aware that no two individuals can live the same life, so we compare and criticise.

    1. You may have planned to graduate in 2017 but you can still start college today in 2023.

    2.You may have planned to get married at 35 but you can do it at 28.

    3.You might have dreamt of being a millionaire at 30 but you can still do it at 50. 

Given that God's ordered steps are not necessarily sequential, it is never too early or too late for you to live the life of your dreams. You were already predestined for success when God created you in your mother's womb. Since he is the Alpha and Omega, it follows that he was aware of you before the earth was created. Today, let go of the pressure to continue living in the order you had hoped your life would unfold, and instead focus on the present. You can still find a way even in the dark because the greater one (holy spirit) resides within you. 

We as human beings fall into a trap of keeping up with the group and as good as this is at times we must remember we are individual's and begin to embrace our personal journeys instead of trying to copy and paste someone else's. 



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