Discovering God's Plan For Your Life

God is so good to us! Isn't He? Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." 

Notice in this passage that the Lord says that He has an "expected" end for us. God has a very special plan for each and every single one of us. Unfortunately, most people go through life never knowing what that plan is. They never realize what it is that the Lord intended them to be. Their lives become a twisted, distorted, and perverted remnant of what it was originally meant to be. Inside each and every single human being, God has placed specific, purposeful gifts and talents, but most people never discover what all of those wonderful things are because they do not know who they are in Christ Jesus. Even those of us who know and love the Lord, too often do not take the time or effort to find out who we really are in Him! We walk around with the emotional and spiritual equivalents of filthy rags, begging for quarters when the Lord wants to give us His Kingdom!

How do we find out who we are in Christ and what all of these wonderful gifts and talents are? And how on earth do we learn to use them and implement them into our daily lives?!  If we go back to our scripture reference (Jeremiah 29:11-13) we will notice that the Lord says that if we will call upon Him and pray unto Him....that He will hearken unto us, and that if we will seek Him and search for Him with our whole heart.....we will find Him. 

That is the secret! God will not turn His back on those who diligently seek after Him and His will for their lives! Are you searching for God and His will for your life with your whole heart? Or have you gotten to the point that you are so full of yourself that it makes you sick and you want to do something different, but you don't know what that thing is? If so....I would like to encourage you today. 

Begin by praying. Lay it all out to God. Confess your sins to Him and ask His forgiveness. Then.....leave it there! Don't complicate things by, first, asking forgiveness, then picking everything back up again and hanging on to it! 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

After you have received the Lord's forgiveness, move forward and begin to take positive steps toward growing in Him. Here are few suggestions to get you started.

#1 - Immerse yourself in God's Word. As you read, pray and ask the Lord to open your spiritual eyes and ears enabling you to see and hear all that He has available to you.

#2 - Put on the garment of praise! Praise God continually for all of the wonderful things that He has done for you thus far and for all of the things that He is doing in your life right now and for all of the wonderful things that He has planned for you and is going to do in the future. Rehearse the good things that He has done for you in the past over and over in your heart and mind. Never take what the Lord has done for you in the past for granted and don't ever forget it either!

#3 - Ask the Lord to give you wisdom and teach you the things that you need to know.  He will do it! James 1:5 says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God....and it shall be given him."

#4 -  Get into a good, Bible-believing church where the fruits of the spirit are evident.  Those fruits are "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness [kindness], goodness, faith [faithfulness], meekness, and temperance [self-control]." (Galatians 5:22-23)

#5 - Ask the Lord to show you what you can do for Him. We are not to sit by idly and do nothing! The Word says that we are to be "...doers of the word, and not hearers only..." It says that if we choose to only hear the Word, and not practice what it teaches, then we are only "deceiving" ourselves (James 1:22).

#6 Pray...pray...pray! Prayer is your communication line with God. The Lord knows every single thing about you...every word, every thought, every deed, every hurt.  There is nothing about you that He doesn't already know, but, as His child, He still expects you to talk to Him and share with Him all that is on your heart and mind. If you don't know how to pray....learn! Look up scriptures on prayer in the Bible and study them. Talk to your pastor or read up on the subject. There are many good books available on prayer!

These suggestions are just to get you started and head you in the right direction. My prayer for you today is that the Lord will begin to work a mighty work within your heart at this very moment! I pray that you will begin to seek God with your whole heart and that, as you do, you would become keenly aware of what His special plan for your life is and that you would learn to walk in that plan. There is no need of you going through life lost, hurt, or confused any longer! God has a perfect, magnificent plan for your life! It is time for you to stop wandering around from one thing to another and to start walking in all of the wonderful things that He has planned just for you!

~Rebecca Knox