:: greatness is a life well-lived ::

God doesn't have a special plan for your life

“God doesn’t have a special plan for your life.”

The words grated on my ears and hit a wall of rejection in my heart. I sat in stubborn silence, disbelieving that claim, for all my life I’d heard people tell me what a wonderful plan God had for me. But as the conversation continued and the reality was drawn out, suddenly things began to make a whole lot more sense, not only in my own life, but also in words of Scripture understood with new eyes.

The truth is that God does have a special plan for my life, but it’s not in the individualistic understanding that is so perpetuated in today’s world. God’s amazing and special purpose for everything is to bring glory to Himself, and for those who are His own, His plan for their lives is to make them more like Christ, in order to bring glory to Himself. It’s that simple; the rest is minor details.

Within those minor details we see a beautiful display of God’s grace. In His infinite wisdom and endless creativity, He made each person unique and special (fearfully and wonderfully made, Ps 139), and gave gifts and abilities and a wide range of personalities. But it’s not for myself that He made me special and with certain gifts, experiences or abilities. It’s for others and ultimately, for Himself. You see, I read in 1 Corinthians 12 about the body of Christ and how each part is important and fits together to represent Christ well, as we all contribute our special gifts and do the good works He created us to do. And when the body’s members all do their part as they’ve been created to do, then we rise to become a truly beautiful display of Christ to the world, which then gives God the glory He deserves (Eph 1).

As these thoughts keep tumbling out and being pieced together in what I already know about God and His Church, my understanding of God’s will for my life has gone through major transformation. I see how, in my pride and selfishness, I made my every decision major, instead of filtering my decisions through the lens of God’s ultimate plan, to make me like Christ. I focused so much on the details and forgot the most important thing I am called to do. I put such heavy expectations on myself and paralyzed my decision-making ability, thinking I would miss out on “God’s special plan for me” if I chose wrongly. I became judgemental toward certain tasks or people or opportunities, deeming them lesser than the “special plan” God had for me and therefore not worth my time.

But I’m learning that it doesn’t really matter what I do or where I live or who I marry or if I marry or anything really besides that in everything I keep Christ central and make myself all about His glory. Because He promises to complete the work started in me (Phil 1) and He promises that He’s working all things out for my good (which is Christlikeness) and His glory (Romans 8). And I can rest and trust in the reality that every thing that happens in life—good and bad, frustrating or thrilling—all of it is being used by God to make me more like Jesus. He’s never shocked or surprised by what happens, but nor has He scripted out every detail (too big of a thought to really understand, but it’s true).

I totally believe that God is intimately involved in my life and is sovereign over everything, but He has created me in such a way and He’s daily making me more like Christ that I have the freedom, wisdom and ability to do whatever I want, as long as Christ and His glory are central. Isn’t that exciting?! I know it’s excited me. But it’s also given me a greater passion and desire to be responsible to serve the Church as I should, to understand even more how He has created me and how I best fit into the Body of Christ, so that I may use my unique gifts and personality to serve others and bring Him the most glory.

There’s no way I will miss God’s will for my life, because His will is not dependent on me; He’s always going to be about making me more like Christ. I can disobey what His Word tells me is right and go against His will in that way, but He’s still going to use my disobedience to bring Himself glory. He’s still going to accomplish His will.

So a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, my pride and selfishness have lost some of their sway, and I’m finding the secret to contentment is easier to understand now…it’s found in the truth that God wills to make me like Christ.

And so I pray this prayer for you, rich with meaning, from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12:

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

posted by FaithChristine @ 22:29