Here is a sentence every Christian has heard before often:
God has a plan for your life!
It is a great thing to know as you struggle to find your way in life and strive to make sense of random and sometimes unpredictable or uncontrollable events. As you get to know him better, it becomes easier to trust in his benevolence and faithfulness. However, discovering what his plan is for your life can be difficult. In fact, I have found many Christians struggling to find words to describe this plan God has for them as individuals.
Are you one of those people? You have a real sense of purpose after years of walking with Jesus, but you do not have a 10-point plan charting the things he wants you to accomplish in your lifetime? And you have this niggling worry because you know that failing to plan is planning to fail?
I hope to share with you an insight here that will help you find your way with confidence and fulfil every detail of God’s plan for your life.
It can be very intimidating to ask what the Lord of creation has planned for you. After all, his creation is breathtakingly detailed and diverse. What would his plans look like?!?
Furthermore, he has a way of doing surprising things. He splits the sea, walks on water, heals with spit and mud, allows his children to be tossed into a fire or into a lion’s den. He is difficult to predict and loves to do the jaw-droppingly unexpected.
Sometimes he confounds the wise by using the unusable to accomplish the impossible. It is often foolish to think God cannot or will not deign to use a specific person. He shows his power and his grace by whom he chooses to use…
He works in mysterious ways. Yes, it is a cliché **and **it is true. This sometimes happens sometimes with clichés. This mystery can complicate our grasp of his plan for each of us. It may help to look at our greatest revelation of his will or plan.
Jesus came. He lived. He died in your and my place. He rose again and now rules forevermore. In all of this, he prepared the way for you and me to have life eternal and life abundant.
I know you know this but please allow me to say/type it again. Just because I love doing it so much.
Jesus came. He lived. He died in your and my place. He rose again and now rules forevermore. In all of this, he prepared the way for you and me to have life eternal and life abundant.
There are two things from this I want to emphasize.
His plan for you is not about you.
Rick Warren starts his famous book ‘The Purpose-Driven Life’ with this sentence:
It is not about you.
Your life has a purpose. God has a plan for your life, but it is not about you owning or experiencing or having. Those things are a by-product of his plan, not the focus. God’s plan for you is to focus your life on serving people, just as he did with Jesus.
Paul says it like this in The Message Bible by Eugene Peterson.
No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. (Eph 2:10 MSG)
His plan for you is about you.
Confused? This is the big one.
His plan for you is not about what he wants you to do. His plan for you is not a list of tasks that you can tick off your list before you go home to watch TV. It is not a mere job.
His plan for you is focussed on who you are and who you are becoming. When he shapes your heart as the potter shapes the clay you become someone who will respond to the world and the need out there as he wants/planned you to respond.
Jesus did not come to show us the way. He is the way. He did not come to merely explain a truth. He is the truth. He did not come to show us how to live. He is life. (John 14:6)
In the same way, God’s plan for you is not a responsibility placed on your shoulders that you had better accomplish. It is not on you. It is in you!
His plan for this world is JESUS. His plan for your community or office or workplace or family or … is YOU. Your heart in his hands will respond to the need in front of you with his love and ability.
People often ask when they see a need or a crisis or some kind of devastation, ‘Where is God? What is his plan? Is he going to do something about this?’
Yes, he has a plan! His plan is you!
Can you imagine a world where God’s plans come to fruition? Can you imagine a world where hearts moulded by God respond to others?
God has a plan for you. And that plan is all about who you are becoming in him. This means that when you do things you are living from the inside out and are truly alive in him.
Jesus has always been God’s plan for this world. He is not Plan B or a contingency plan. He is God’s only plan since he is a perfect solution to all our woes. Jesus in you is God’s perfect plan for your world.
Don’t hold out for Plan B. It is not his habit to have one. Don’t make your own plan. His plan is perfect. Surrender your heart to him and become who you were planned to be to your world!
Image by Lorri Lang from Pixabay
Published before here