The Farther We Have Wandered from God’s Perfect Plan

By Farikanayi

Christianity can sometimes become a habit or a tradition, something we are taught to be and which we claim without much thought about what it is or what it requires of us. There are many influences vying for authority over our lives, and sometimes, their voices seem much louder than that of the God we claim to serve. Who we have become as Christians and who God calls us to be can sometimes seem miles apart. The Word of God does not always have the final authority over our lives, so we have become who society, culture, traditions, and churches say we should be. But are we who God says we should be? The Farther We Have Wandered from God's Perfect Plan is a personal reflection of where we are as believers in relation to who we should be as spouses, parents, servants in God's house, and people in general. It is a small nudge for us to search our lives and the things we have embraced as acceptable and see how they hold up to God's yardstick, his own Word by which he sustains all areas of our lives.

Farikanayi was born and raised in Zimbabwe and later studied for a BSc and Teaching Certificate from Clark College, Atlanta and East Carolina University in Greenville, USA. She worked in Zimbabwe as a teacher, deputy head and head teacher then migrated to the UK with her two sons and two daughters before relocating to USA where she lives with her husband Wayne. She graduated from the University of Leeds (MA in Gender Studies and MA in Social Work). In the UK, Farikanayi initially worked as a health care assistant. She later became a teacher and eventually a social worker. She is currently employed as a human services caseworker and is also a student at Moody Bible Institute, pursuing an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counselling. She has published six books so far, which are all available on Amazon. Farikanayi is a member of a community-changing church congregation which is a central part of her life. She loves gardening, reading, writing, knitting, sewing and planning events and group holidays. Prayer-walking is her preferred form of exercise and journaling, her emotional and spiritual release.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9798892437868

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The Farther We Have Wandered from God's Perfect Plan

Farikanayi

ISBN 979-8-89243-785-1 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89243-786-8 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Farikanayi

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Back cover photo by Robert Peel Photography

(Unless specified, Bible references are from the NIV)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Intro

First Family

Second- and Third-Chance Marriages

Deacons

Abraham and Sarah

Finances

The Church

Train Up a Child

Too Late?

Samson

Lukewarm

Complacency

Blame Game?

Secret Lives

Some Trust in Chariots and Some in Horses

Service in His House

Titus 2, Ephesians 5, Proverbs 31

Focus: Motivation

Vulnerability

They Worshipped God, But…

If My People…

Hope?

More Hope?

Wrap It Up

Fari's Corner

Fari's Corner 2

About the Author

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

—Psalm 11:3 KJV

Although our sins testify against us, O Lord, do something for the sake of your name. For our backsliding is great, we have sinned against you.

—Jeremiah 14:7

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

—Lamentations 3:22

Why I Write

One of the things I have noticed in my life is that God speaks to me in book and article titles and various materials which he gives me to write. Sometimes, it comes as I am reflecting on incidents in my life or as I am reading or hearing the Word. A lot of the impetus I get for writing comes during times of conflict and pain. I am generally not a happy-times writer, I am what my brother Zeke refers to as a lean-times writer. For some reason, pain, shame, fear, anger, and disappointment all drive me to my laptop. I am okay with that because I don't let off on people. God gave me a useful outlet for my issues, and I am grateful for that. I could have been drinking my pain away or trying to numb it with drugs. I could have been living in constant drama or shouting and yelling at people when I am hurting. Instead, I write, and I think that's a good thing because in the end, I am always the first person to benefit from my books. I pray, I read the Word, I reflect, and the words I write become a healing balm, or a reminder of what I need to work on. This book is no different from those before it in that respect. It, too, is my lean-time writing. It's been initiated by challenges, transitions, changes, and trials. It's a result of me trying to figure out the shifting sands, the crooked paths, the upheavals, the self-doubt and revelation, correction, and sometimes the discipline from a Father who loves me enough to want it to be well with me (3 John 2). He speaks Shalom in my times of despair, hurt, and discouragement and reassures me daily through his Word that his thoughts, current thoughts, toward me are for peace and prosperity, not evil leading me to my expected end, my assured future (Jeremiah 29:11).

About halfway through this book, I lost more than ten pages of it. I always save my work as I go, but for some reason, when I opened the document to work on it, more than ten pages were gone. I spent hours trying to recover them to no avail. I later found out that my memory stick had become faulty. So what I have done is to ask God to give me back the words. If this is from him, if I am writing in obedience to him and under his direction, then I will get all the stuff back which I am supposed to share and then some. I'm hurt, frustrated, and disappointed, but I also know that victory is always mine, regardless of the challenges and the letdowns. This book will be finished, and it will impact someone's life in addition to mine. So this little loss is no loss. It's made me realize that I need to finish this book and not shelve it like I do most of my work. It is well, and like David, I am encouraging myself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6b).

Acknowledgments

The Word of God is one thing none of us can ever have enough of. It is our daily food and the source of answers to all our issues. It is the only reading that addresses every failing, all our pain, unresolved issues, and the encouragement we need day by day. Although I have read the Bible through more than once, each time I open it, I seem to be reading the verses for the first time. It's a lifetime study, it's a daily study, a continuous study. As I read, I find materials and references for each book I write, so I have to acknowledge the Word, the men and women who teach it, and the Holy Spirit who brings me understanding and revelation when I read. I am grateful for each place of worship where the Word is taught and sought after in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24), the places where we are each fed and watered and where we have the opportunity to grow and mature in the Lord, if we allow the Word to change us.

The Word is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17). That being said, I have to give credit to the Word for its work in me. I also have to thank all the men and women of God who have stood in their place of calling and brought the Word which has fed and sustained me, the Word which continues to clarify my vision, the vision God has for me, the Word which has brought the healing and deliverance I so desperately needed, and the Word that has brought comfort and reassurance as my Father has taken time to quiet me with his love and to rejoice over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17b). I acknowledge the ongoing, day-by-day, unceasing work that God's Word is perfecting in me regardless of how far from perfection I may be in my own eyes and in the eyes of those around me.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my husband Wayne, and to my children, the four I birthed and the many God gave me, saving me from labor pains but granting me children who have been my special blessings. I love each one of them, and despite the gray hairs I attribute to them, I thank them for giving me the desire to both live and excel. Added to them, I now have an additional blessing given to me: my first biological grandchild, Marley-Rae Nhanha. She and all my adopted grandchildren deserve mention because of the love they stir up in me, the comfort they offer when I need that unjudging, unconditional, and uncondemning love.

I tend to mention my father a lot, His Excellency KGD as we call him. He is a blessing I celebrate and thank God for all the time. He unashamedly loved me and dedicated his life to making sure his family was well cared for, like those deacons and leaders mentioned in 1 Timothy 3. God called him home not long ago at the ripe old age of ninety-nine, too soon in my eyes, at the right time in God's eyes.

I dedicate this also to anyone who has taken time to encourage me to write. There are many who have acknowledged a gift I didn't see or appreciate. There are many who have allowed God to use them as the voice of reassurance for a faltering, budding author with no confidence in her gift.

Let me say a quick Thank you! and Mazvita! to everyone who has bought, has borrowed, has read, will read, will buy any of the books I write. May God bless you and sharpen your gift to the point where it becomes your voice to the society around you.

Intro

Writing is sometimes like giving a testimony. We give it to direct glory to God for something he has seen us through, some victory he has given us. Or we write so that someone else can be encouraged by our testimony and see that what they are going through can be overcome. There is a level of transparency to writing or testifying personal stories, but it is a necessary form of vulnerability, more so when it points another toward hope and solutions.

As I embark on this new journey, new book, new issues to discuss, new experiences, I ask myself why I have gone through certain things at different stages in my life. When things are tough, it's easy to cave in, to complain, to get discouraged, and I have been all those things. But the more I reflect, the more I realize that there are other reasons why we go through stuff. The one I am embracing more and more is that we are meant to be a cloud of witnesses to the people around us (Hebrews 12:1). Our cloud of witnesses involves people like Abel and Cain, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, Rahab, Leah, and others who were all written about in Hebrews 11 for us to be encouraged, corrected, taught, warned, and so on about how to live lives that are pleasing to God.

I realize that my life and some of the challenges and victories I face are not really for me, they are so that my life, my story can be a witness to someone going through the same things. My pain should not be in vain but will bring healing to another. My victories will make someone else hold on when they feel like caving in. Nothing I go through should ever be wasted. My silence will lead it to waste, but as I explore it all, as I write, someone else will locate themselves and step out of the mud they have been sinking in.

Life is a good teacher. Let me rephrase that: the things we go through in life, the challenges, the joys, the issues, the pain, the victories all provide useful curricula for our lives. Each situation we deal with does not come and go without teaching us something. It's up to us to decide what to learn or if we learn. Sometimes, we are too proud to learn, so the lessons come and go, and we remain exactly where we were and how we were. At other times, the lessons come, and we are humble enough to embrace them and use them for our own personal development. Whether or not we embrace the lessons is up to us. The lessons are there for our benefit, whether or not we utilize them is also up to us.

The lessons we learn are not meant to kill or destroy us. When they first come, we may not see past them to how we can become better through them. Sometimes, they are hard and painful, and they mar our sight so that we focus on them and not on the expected outcome. It's hard to plan a future when you have a full-blown migraine or when you have a nasty toothache. The pain does not allow you to be objective or to be productive. If we are not careful, we can destroy a whole future because of a temporary pain. We have to find solutions to the pain so that we can proceed with life. It's the same with the challenges we face in life. If we are not wise, we can focus so much on the challenges and make decisions guided by the pain that we mess up good things that are ahead of us but which we cannot see because we are in pain and our tears are blurring our vision.

It's important for us as believers to remember what the scriptures say. Psalm 23 tells us that there will be valleys of the shadow of death. That's a place of learning. God's expectation is that we will walk through that valley. We won't sit in it. We won't curl up and die in it. We won't surrender it all in that valley. Instead, we will walk through, in pain, in shame, in fear, in despair, in grief. But we will walk, even if we have to limp our way across it. We will learn to hold our heads up in the face of taunts. We will learn to laugh at distraction and hardship (Job 5:22), to change our attitude toward trouble, but the biggest lesson will be to know and understand that God is with us. He walks alongside us. We are never alone in the valley; the Creator of the heavens and the earth is in there walking the length of it with us, whispering encouragement, strengthening us. We are not in the valley alone. We need to learn all the lessons we can in that time; we need to build up our stamina, our staying power; and we need to learn to pray the effective and fervent prayers of the righteous (James 5:16) and come out at the other end encouraged and victorious.

I recall a time in my life when I had made some rather drastic changes. I quit a good job that had security. I not only left the job but relocated to a town that was miles away to study. I moved my children from what had become home to them. I completed my studies under very challenging conditions, but we made it through. No job came up after the studies which I thought would improve my prospects. I decided to go back to university for a second master's degree. Once again under very challenging circumstances. But God saw me through that again. Then came a time of drought. I could not get a job. Nothing I tried worked, and I was getting really discouraged until a wise person told me to make use of the time I had on my hands, not to despair, not to worry, but to invest my time, that it was a season that would pass and that a time was coming when I would no longer have that sort of time to spare. Even though this was a tough time, it was also a time of seeing God at work. He saw me and my children through that valley and brought us through to the other end. Would I want to go through it again? No! But I did benefit, spiritually and relationally. I spent quality time with my youngest daughter who was still at home. We would pray for things and see God make them come to pass in ways only he could have. The enemy may have meant that drought for our harm, but God sure turned it around for our good (Genesis 50:20).

I have been reflecting on my life and the lives of the people around me. As I did so, I realized that society has changed gradually but drastically over the years. Even those of us who are believers, Christians purporting to follow the footsteps of our Savior and of his apostles are getting caught up in the evolution of principles, values, and structures God set up for us to live by. We are, as a result, dealing with issues and situations we cannot directly find solutions for in the Word or even in the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) who have gone before us and from who we try to find answers for the issues we are facing in our marriages, children, relationships, finances, service, and other situations in our lives. Life has changed and continues to change as new laws are passed in the corridors of power, as new policies are debated and implemented, as lifestyles and identities morph.

Things that would never have been shown or done publicly are becoming increasingly accepted; standards of language, dress, and activities are changing before us so that people no longer flinch when a near-nude woman walks around in daytime.

I recently visited San Francisco and was walking along the seafront when a middle-aged man walked along the packed promenade where there were families and people of all ages, and he was stark naked. I seemed to be the only person shocked enough to stand still in confusion. How does that happen, and no one rushes in to protect our children from seeing that sort of thing? The fact that this man thought it was okay to walk in a public place in that state shocked me to the core. We have drifted from what is right, what is godly to a place where each person does what is right in their own sight (Judges 17:6; Proverbs 21:2).

Because of the transitions and changes we see around us, we no longer have the same reference points for a lot of things, not like our grandmothers had. So now when grandmothers try to give advice, it seems inadequate and irrelevant because the scenario we live in, the communities, the lifestyles are all different. What worked for Grandma won't work for us. So sometimes young people might appear as if they are unteachable, but it could just be because the advice and guidance they are receiving is obsolete and redundant, not because it is not valuable, but because it is mistimed. What these young people are dealing with and the pressure they are under to fit in with their peers makes Grandma's advice appear useless to them. Little do they realize that in it is life for them if they would only listen. What they do not realize is that even though they seem to be living in totally new and different times, the Bible still says that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The Word of God is still relevant and applicable if one is wise enough to listen and apply it.

We have allowed our foundations to be shaken and destroyed, and now the righteous do not know what to do (Psalm 11:3). The support systems we had in place, the faith, trust, the righteous living, the salvation, the family, and true worship—our fundamentals are shaken and destroyed and so people live as they wish and do not allow anyone to hold them accountable.

If we look at marriage now, it is different from the godly marriages we see in the Bible or the time-tested marriages some of our parents had. Families are totally different now with people in them who God never intended for them to be in. In all areas of life, in our communities and society, we see a concerted effort to push God out, to ridicule anything godly, to challenge any principle that is not self-centered. I am concerned about how far we seem to have wandered from God's perfect plan for each aspect of our lives, his perfect plan for our churches, families, marriages, finances, children, communities, societies, and nations. Each time we accept what the world is offering, we are also rejecting what God brings to the table. Each rejection creates distance between us and him, to our detriment.

First Family

The first family really messed things up for us all. The distance between man and God started with them, the change in the way things were done started with them. They were placed in the perfect location and given everything they could ever need (Genesis 2). But human nature reared its ugly head up, and pride, disobedience, and foolishness allowed them to be tempted and to be given a different point of view from the one their Creator had given them. As a result, they took the first step away from God's plan, and the gap has continued to increase since then with different generations giving in to the deception of the enemy, to egos, and to selfishness leading to