Whose Story Are You Living?
Be Still Originals Devotional
I've always loved a good story.
The kind that draws you in so completely that you begin to feel as though you're living alongside the characters.
You celebrate their victories.
You ache over their disappointments.
You wonder what will happen next.
And sometimes, just when you think you know where the story is going, something happens that changes everything.
I've been thinking about stories lately.
Not the ones sitting on my bookshelf.
My own.
The story I've spent my entire life living.
The chapters filled with beautiful memories, unexpected turns, mistakes, victories, heartbreak, and moments I never saw coming.
The dreams I've chased.
The plans I've made.
The things I've worked so hard to accomplish.
And, of course, the prayers I've prayed along the way.
God has been part of so many of those chapters.
I've called on Him when I was afraid.
I've thanked Him when things went well.
I've asked Him to guide my decisions, protect the people I love, and help me accomplish the things I believed mattered.
But this morning, a question came to mind that made me stop.
Is God a character in my story, or am I a character in His?
I sat with that question for a while.
Because at first, the answer seemed obvious.
Of course I'm part of God's story.
I'm a Christian.
I believe in Him.
I read His Word.
I pray.
I want my life to honor Him.
But the longer I thought about it, the more I began to recognize something uncomfortable.
Sometimes I live as though I'm the author.
I decide what I want the next chapter to look like.
I choose the direction.
I imagine the ending.
And then I invite God into the story I've already begun writing.
Father, please bless this.
Please make this work.
Please help me accomplish what I've set out to do.
Please don't let this chapter end the way I'm afraid it might.
And although there's nothing wrong with bringing our hopes and desires before God, I wonder how often I've forgotten whose story this really is.
Because if I'm the author, God becomes someone I call on to help my story unfold the way I want.
But if God is the Author, my life becomes an opportunity to participate in something far greater than anything I could have imagined.
And that changes everything.
I thought about the people in Scripture.
Abraham didn't know where God was leading him when he was called to leave his home.
Moses didn't wake up one morning dreaming of confronting Pharaoh.
Mary couldn't possibly have imagined every chapter that would follow when she said she was the Lord's servant.
And the disciples?
They thought they were following a teacher.
They had no idea how dramatically their lives would change or how God would use their obedience to carry the gospel into the world.
None of them understood the entire story.
They simply responded to the God who called them.
And that made me wonder.
What if I've spent too much time asking God to help me write a beautiful story and not enough time asking Him how my life can serve His?
Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that He prepared beforehand for us to do.
I love that.
We are His workmanship.
Not an afterthought.
Not an accident.
Not someone He reluctantly decided to include.
We were created with purpose.
But I want to be careful here, because I think we can misunderstand this, too.
Being part of God's story doesn't mean our value comes from how much we accomplish for Him.
God doesn't love us because we're useful.
He doesn't measure our worth by the size of our ministry, the number of people we reach, or how impressive our work appears.
He loved us before we ever accomplished anything.
Our salvation is a gift of grace.
Our relationship with Him comes first.
And the work He invites us into flows from that relationship.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 22 that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Maybe that's where we begin to understand our place in His story.
Not by searching for something extraordinary to accomplish.
But by learning to love Him with our whole hearts and allowing that love to shape the way we live.
The way we treat our families.
The way we speak to strangers.
The way we respond when someone hurts us.
The way we make decisions.
The way we use our time, our gifts, and our resources.
The way we respond when the story takes a turn we never expected.
Because when I believe my life is primarily my story, every unexpected chapter can feel like an interruption.
Every closed door can feel like failure.
Every disappointment can feel like something has gone wrong.
But when I remember that my life belongs to God, I can begin to see those moments differently.
Not because every painful thing was written by His hand.
People make choices. Sin causes suffering. We live in a broken world.
But none of those things can remove God's ability to work in and through the lives of those who belong to Him.
And perhaps that's one of the most comforting things about being part of His story.
I don't have to know how every chapter ends to trust the character of the One who holds my life.
I don't have to understand every unexpected turn.
I don't have to figure out how every disappointment fits into the bigger picture.
And I don't have to make my life impressive enough for God to notice.
He already sees me.
He already knows me.
He already loves me.
My responsibility isn't to control the entire story.
It's to faithfully live the part He's entrusted to me.
And that brings me back to the question that started all of this.
Is God a character in my story, or am I a character in His?
I think the answer is revealed less by what I say and more by how I live.
When I make a decision, whose purposes am I seeking?
When I face disappointment, am I more concerned about losing the future I imagined or remaining faithful to God in the future I now face?
When I serve others, am I hoping my work will be noticed, or am I simply loving the people God has placed before me?
When I open my Bible, am I looking only for something that will help me accomplish my plans, or am I seeking to know the God whose purposes are greater than mine?
Those aren't always easy questions.
And I certainly don't have all the answers.
But I know this.
I don't want to spend the rest of my life inviting God to play a supporting role in a story I've decided to write myself.
I want to know Him.
I want to recognize His character.
I want His Word to shape my decisions.
I want to love the people He places in front of me.
I want to be willing to follow Him when the road changes.
And when my chapter in this world comes to an end, I don't want the most important thing about my life to be what I accomplished.
I want it to be that my life pointed people toward Jesus.
Maybe that's what it means to live as part of God's story.
Not trying to become the main character.
But faithfully reflecting the One the whole story is about.
And perhaps the most beautiful part is this:
The God who invites us into His story is the same God who loved us enough to send His Son so we could belong to Him forever.
What a privilege to be included.
What a gift to be loved.
And what a beautiful reason to live differently.
Encouragement
If you've been wondering whether your life has purpose, remember that God doesn't measure your significance the way the world does.
You don't need a platform, a title, or an extraordinary accomplishment to have a meaningful place in His kingdom.
You were created to know Him, love Him, and reflect His character in the life He's given you.
And even if you've spent years pursuing your own plans, it's not too late to surrender your direction to Him.
He welcomes those who turn to Him.
Your next chapter doesn't have to be about making your life bigger.
It can simply be about making His love more visible through the way you live.
❤️ Heart Audit
When I look at the way I make decisions, am I inviting God into the plans I've already made, or am I genuinely seeking His direction before moving forward?
If my life were telling a story about God, what would the people closest to me learn about His character through the way I live and love?
Am I measuring the value of my life by what I've accomplished, or am I learning to recognize the privilege of belonging to Christ and participating in His purposes?
Prayer
Father,
Thank You for creating me, knowing me, and loving me before I ever accomplished anything.
Forgive me for the times I've made my own plans the center of my life and invited You to bless what I've already decided.
I don't want to simply include You in my story.
I want my life to reflect Yours.
Teach me to seek You first.
Help me understand Your character through Your Word and recognize the opportunities You've placed before me to love others and serve You.
Give me the humility to remember that this life isn't about making my name known.
It's about making Yours known.
When I don't understand the next chapter, remind me that I can trust You.
When I become distracted by my own ambitions, gently draw my heart back to what matters.
And when my time on earth is finished, may the story of my life point others toward the goodness, mercy, and love of Jesus Christ.
In His name, Amen.
📖 See for Yourself
Read Ephesians 2:1–10, Matthew 22:34–40, and Colossians 1:15–20.
As you read, notice how each passage reveals something about our place in God's story.
In Ephesians, notice what God has done for us before considering what He calls us to do.
In Matthew, notice how Jesus describes the greatest commandments.
And in Colossians, pay attention to what Scripture reveals about Jesus and His place in all creation.
Then ask yourself:
If all things were created through Christ and for Christ, how should that change the way I understand the purpose of my own life?
I'd love to hear what God reveals to you through His Word.
Tomorrow's Invitation
Tomorrow morning, before you begin making plans for the day, ask God one simple question:
"Father, how can my life reflect Your story today?"
Then pay attention to the people, responsibilities, and opportunities already in front of you.
You may not be called to do something extraordinary.
You may simply be called to love someone well.
And sometimes that's exactly how God's kingdom becomes visible in an ordinary life.
Anchor Truth
The purpose of my life isn't to make God part of my story. It's to live so faithfully in His that others come to know the One the story is about.
