"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." — Jeremiah 29:11

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this scripture, or seen it in someone's Instagram bio. I also can't tell you how many times I have read the scripture when I feel like I have lost all hope and come to the conclusion that we are not made to carry this load called life on our own. We, unfortunately, are human. We are our own worst enemy. We continually make mistakes. We hurt those around us and we hurt ourselves by trying to manipulate and control every single little detail about our life. We just are not meant to be in control of our own lives. But, as many times as I have realized this, I still find myself trying to control and plan out my life instead of handing over the reigns to God. Why do I find it so hard to give over control to the one guy that continually promises that he is going to take care of me?

I like to be in control. I think that I know what is best for myself, after all, I am me. I know exactly what I want, when I want it and exactly how I am going to get it, right? Wrong. Looking back on all the times I took the reigns of my life back from God, I ended up getting hurt and taking myself a little farther from the plan God has been laying out for me. I ended up falling in love with the wrong guy and putting my relationship with him above my relationship with God. I ended up surrounding myself with people whom I thought cared about me but truly only cared about when the next party was and what time we were going to be getting to the bar. I ended up moving far away from my family to escape the hurt I faced in my hometown because I had tried to control my life before college too, and, well, you see how that turned out. And all this time I blamed God for my hurt.

But instead of telling me how stupid I was and still am whenever I do come back to Him, (and I always come back to him), He takes back the reigns of my life and tells me to rest. He knows how tired I must be from trying to control so many things at once, and He is so sorry my heart is broken. He is sorry I felt like I had to try and do this on my own. He always reminds me "Child, for I know the plans I have for you, and if you would just let me do my job then you will see that they are plans to prosper you so that you won't hurt anymore. They are plans that are going to give you hope and a bright future."

We are not meant to do this on our own, so take a step back and let God do His thing. He knows the plans He has for you and me. He is not going to hurt us. His plan and goal is to give us hope and a future. How good does that make you feel? It makes me feel awesome and confident because I know the creator of heaven and Earth is in control of my life, and I can just sit back, trust Him and enjoy the ride. The life we could have that doesn't include worry, stress and disappointment, if we just surrender to God's plan it's far greater than the life we have trying to do it on our own.