Whose Story Are We Living?

Are We Following God—or Asking Him to Follow Us?

Most of us carry a picture of how we think life should turn out.

A certain income. A successful career. A comfortable home. Recognition for what we have accomplished. Enough security to finally stop worrying.

We make decisions around that picture. We sacrifice for it. Sometimes we hold on to it so tightly that we never stop to ask who taught us to want it in the first place.

Then we come to faith, and we bring that picture with us.

We want God in our lives. But have we considered what might happen when His direction looks different from the future we imagined?

Are we surrendering our lives to His story, or asking Him to fit into the story we have already written?

We can attend church, pray, and sincerely believe while still expecting to have the final say. We ask God to bless our plans without asking whether those plans need to change.

That is one way the world can continue to shape us even after we have professed our faith. Its definition of success remains in charge, and we expect God to help us achieve it.

But when our plans conflict with His direction, we have a choice to make. We can insist on our way, or we can surrender to His. We cannot give Him the final say while reserving the right to overrule Him.

The Expectations We Bring

Sometimes we come to God with an understanding we may never say out loud: Once I am saved, He will answer my prayers and give me the desires of my heart.

And by “answer,” we often mean “give me what I asked for.”

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
— Psalm 37:4, ESV

It is easy to focus on the desires and hurry past the delight.

This verse places our desires within a relationship with the Lord. It is not a guarantee that salvation will deliver the lifestyle we have imagined. As we come to know Him, the heart doing the asking can change.

Imagine coming to God asking for more money because you believe money will finally give you peace.

Over time, your circumstances may still require hard work and careful decisions. Bills still need to be paid. But something begins to change in you. You become less consumed with comparison. You stop measuring every part of your worth by what you earn. You begin to trust God with what you cannot control.

You set out looking for money, but you found peace.

Money still has a purpose. It simply no longer has the same power over you.

If God changes what you desire, will you receive what He is growing in you—or keep demanding what you originally came for?

Relationship Changes Our Direction

In John 15, Jesus describes our relationship with Him through a vine and its branches. The branches depend on the vine for life and fruitfulness.

That is a picture of abiding: remaining connected to Him and allowing that relationship to shape how we live.

Faith reaches into our decisions, relationships, ambitions, and habits. It changes what we pursue and what we become willing to release.

We do not need to know every detail of our assignment before we can obey the next thing God has made clear.

But we do need to become willing to be redirected.

When His Word exposes something we need to change, agreement is only the beginning. Will we act on it? Will we release the habit, tell the truth, or make the decision we have been avoiding?

And that is where surrender can hurt.

When Letting Go Hurts

We need to be honest about this part.

Control can feel like safety. Approval can feel like worth. Achievement can become the way we prove we deserve a place in the room.

When those things have shaped our lives for years, releasing them can feel like losing part of ourselves.

For me, pride, vanity, and control became normal for so long that I did not know how to let them go. The fight to hold on almost cost me everything.

It is difficult to surrender something you have depended on, even when you begin to recognize what it is costing you.

But holding on has a cost, too. What are we continuing to lose while we wait for obedience to feel comfortable?

And surrender is ongoing. We can release something in prayer today and find ourselves reaching for it again tomorrow.

That does not erase yesterday’s surrender. It reveals where we still need to grow.

The consistency is in our return to God. It does not mean that life must become uninterrupted pain or that suffering measures how faithful we are.

When the Path Gets Hard

Walking in obedience does not make us immune to resistance.

Scripture calls us to be watchful against the enemy in 1 Peter 5:8–9. As we become more intentional about following Christ, we should be prepared for temptation, distraction, and discouragement.

Sometimes the temptation is to return to what used to make us feel powerful or secure. Sometimes it is to believe that difficulty means God has abandoned us.

But hardship alone cannot tell us whether we are on the right path. Every struggle is not necessarily a spiritual attack. We still need Scripture, prayer, wise counsel, and an honest look at our decisions.

A difficult season is a reason to draw near to God, not an automatic reason to turn back.

When obedience becomes uncomfortable, will we keep taking the next faithful step, or return to the control we said we were ready to release?

Grace Meets Us There

Paul pleaded with the Lord to remove his thorn. The answer he received included these words:

“My grace is sufficient for you.”
— 2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV

Paul’s account reminds us that grace can sustain us while the difficulty remains.

We can ask God for relief. We can tell Him that we are tired, disappointed, or afraid. Surrender does not require pretending that pain feels good.

Pain itself is not grace. Yet grace can meet us in the middle of it, giving us strength to take the next step, humility to receive help, and room to learn what we could not see before.

God can work through what hurts to refine us. We do not have to call every painful event something He sent.

Sometimes giving Him the pain means praying honestly. Sometimes it means accepting support, seeking care, or setting a necessary boundary. Trusting God does not require remaining in harm.

And peace may begin to return before the situation is resolved. It may come gradually, with difficult days along the way. Still struggling does not mean we have failed to surrender.

Will You Have the Courage to Follow?

I have to ask myself the same question I am asking you: Where am I calling Jesus Lord while still insisting on having the final say?

Maybe you already know the area. A habit you keep defending. An apology you keep postponing. A definition of success that is costing you the people you love. A decision you keep trying to make God approve.

Bring that specific thing before Him. Examine it honestly against Scripture. Seek wise counsel where you need clarity. And where the next faithful step is already clear, take it.

Will you do what He is asking, even if it changes the life you planned?

You do not have to feel fearless. You do not need the entire road mapped out. But following Him requires a willingness to move beyond agreeing with what He says.

There will be things to release. There may be grief in letting them go. Bring Him that pain. Receive the help He provides. Trust His grace enough to take the next step while the work in you is still unfinished.

Then return to Him tomorrow. Surrender is a choice we keep putting into practice.

When your way and His way pull in different directions, you cannot follow both. One will determine your next step.

Will you have the courage to follow Him—or will you keep asking Him to follow you?

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