Have you found God’s plan for your life? Wouldn’t it be nice if every one of us got a letter in the mail when we were 17 years old telling us exactly what we were made to do? I definitely did not, yet the journey has been both winding and incredibly satisfying.
I hate to break it to you, but God probably isn’t going to write your life instructions with lightning in the night sky. It addition, I have read the Bible cover to cover multiple times, and I can assure you that it will not tell you what major you should have chosen in college.
Let me make a bold claim. I guarantee you can know God‘s plan for your life if you faithfully follow these three steps.
• Know God – Why on earth would we believe that we can know our life‘s purpose without an intimate relationship with our Maker? To know the function of a machine, you must talk to none other than the One who designed and constructed it. If you’re searching for a suitable occupation, first pick up a Bible, not a personality quiz or a career questionnaire. Understand the one who knows you better than anybody else within his Word, through prayer, and in worship. Listen to some Christian music. Take a prayer walk outside. Watch a good sermon on YouTube.
• Know Community – From the very first chapters of Scripture, God declares that “it is not good for man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18). The same is true if you’re looking for God‘s plan for your life! Surround yourself with quality Christian community. They will call out the good they see in you and illuminate ways you contribute to them that you might not even have considered. Christian community will challenge you out of self-centered thinking and find the diamond in the rough, that is, the redemptive qualities of your unique personality and physical make up.
• Know Process – Perhaps this is a slight let down, but my conviction is that you can only find out the fullness of God‘s plan for your life by walking it out. At no point will you feel like you have fully figured it out 100%, but in each stage of the process, different threads of your purpose will be revealed.
Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
As the morning sun first crests the horizon, most of the world around you is actually still dark. So it is right now with God‘s plan for your life. His promise for you, though, if you choose to live a righteous life, is that your path will grow brighter with every step until his purpose for you is as clear as a shadowless midday sun.
The Bible won’t tell you what to do with your life, but it will tell you how. It will encourage you to work with excellence, to exercise patience with those around you, and to choose joy every day. Above all, it calls us to live a life of love.
If you are an aspiring movie maker who is currently working at a Starbucks, then don’t fret. Making each latte with a sense of pride and aesthetic that will bring beauty into the customer’s life. Learn to pay your dues. Live in the moment and commit yourself to the process. Work hard. Be patient. As you choose fully to engage God where you are, in the course of years, things will slowly begin coming together to make the perfect narrative.
Keep walking, my friends. –g
At 72 as well as 17 these methods still work. Besides, every commandment and every directive of God is His plan for our lives. Each step of obedience leads to another. Thanks for your words of wisdom to start a day such as this.
At 72 as well as 17 these methods still work. Besides, every commandment and every directive of God is His plan for our lives. Each step of obedience leads to another. Thanks for your words of wisdom to start a day such as this.
You’re very welcome.