Fresh Mannaby Pastor Tim Burt
Yesterday, I began to talk to you about not letting your life be random as though there was no plan for your life. God has a plan for your life that He would like to lead you in. It takes strong faith to believe that. Do you know why? Because when you talk about a plan for your life, you are talking about the future―things unseen and things unknown. And they are exactly that. If they are unseen and unknown, how can you trust that you have a clue of what that plan is? You couldn’t without the Lord. Only the Lord knows the future!
There is the kind of planning that is simple and not too overly complicated―like getting a plan for your day. You think of all the things you need to do; build a task list, prioritize it, and pursue it step by step. That might be a part of your daily calendar and planner or it may be simply scribbled on a sheet of paper. Getting that kind of a plan has little risk and takes little faith. That kind of planning is perfect when it’s part of an ongoing bigger picture and plan. Then each day is a working part of a bigger picture. But, if you have that kind of planning just to get through each day and each week with little thought to where it’s leading you, then it’s random. The results and it’s impact on your life, and the chance that it will produce the kind of success and fruit that you’d like to see is about as random as a glass cube of bingo balls being pushed around by air while someone picks one out and calls it out the winning number.
Life planning can be fearful and intimidating. It can because it involves the assumption that there is a big picture plan that God has though you can’t see it. It can because it takes faith to believe that you are able to somehow discover it and follow it.
So why should you believe what I’m proposing when many would consider it nonsense? You should because the very nature of God and what we know of Him through His word, help us understand that to believe anything less is nonsense. God’s plan and planning is throughout the entire Bible.
Consider Romans 8:14 (NLT) “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” This verse is a part of other verses that say God doesn’t want us led around by fleshly carnal desires. They reveal that by receiving Jesus, we received His Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit has set us free being a slave to sin and carnality. And because of that, we can be led in our hearts by the Holy Spirit in the will and plan of God. So… God is leading us. Where and how do you think He is leading us? Just simply through the hour or day? Do you really think God is that short range? Is that His nature? Of course not!
Now let’s back up. Let’s back up all the way prior to God creating the world we live in. Imagine that before God ever created the world we live in, He knew every detail of every aspect of the creation and person He was about to create including every detail of every person’s life. And in that plan, His perfect will was putting Himself in your path where Jesus would be revealed to you with the hope you would make the choice to receive Him. From there, He would lead you by His Spirit into the plan He had for you. Does that sound wild? If so read this:
Ephes. 1:3-5 (NLT) “How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure."
Can you see that God has always had a plan for you? Before He created the world He had a plan for you. Let’s read further:
Ephes. 1:9-14 (NLT) “God's secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. God's purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God. And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.”
We’ll go further tomorrow. Today, understand and begin to find comfort in this; God has a plan for you. He wants to lead you in it. It will take faith and trust. It won’t always be clear and easy to see. It will take faith every day. But you will have to have confidence in this truth through your faith. That is how you begin to discover it. Then you acknowledge it and ask the Lord to lead you in it.
He wants to lead you away from ‘random’ and get you to begin to think big picture. It happens a step at a time. Let go of the fear and seek Him and thank Him that He has a plan. And then pay attention! Watch as the Lord begins to lead you by His Holy Spirit. You will see or experience evidence! More tomorrow…Psalm 32:8 (NLT) “The Lord says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”
In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
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Published by Pastor Tim Burt
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