Christianity is not about having it altogether, it's recognizing that we don't! It's about a God that meets us in our brokenness and loves us as we are! A God that desires to have a relationship with us and has made a way for us, as sinners, to have a relationship with a Holy God! A God given freedom to be all God created us to be, to have renewed hope and to live a dream, His dream! To celebrate with each new sunrise, a new day and a fresh start, when we find ourselves less than perfect. To be accepted and loved for who we are! This is the freedom we have to celebrate when we walk with God!
I don't have it altogether either ~ but even with my husband, recently, passing away, I haven't lost hope for the future ~ still grieving some, yes. Jim's life is over, mine is not! I still have dreams GOD has written on the tablet of my heart that EXCITE ME and give me EXPECTANT HOPE for the future! He's written them there and I'm looking to Him to fulfill them, because they are alot BIGGER than me! I want every day, I have left, to live for Him! I want everyone of them to count for eternity! I want to live and breath His plans and purposes! Did you know God has a plan and purpose for your life? We burned this truth into the hearts and minds of our children, at a very young age.) We wanted them to dream BIG, to dream with God!
In our brokenness we can, often, lose sight of our dreams that were so alive and vivid in our minds when we were young. Our first car, college, a career, we just knew we were meant to follow! But life happens and we can lose sight of those dreams. We can feel imprisoned, in a survival mode of existence and wonder how we got to this place. We can feel resentment and jealousy, inside, as we see others happy and blessed and breathing in every moment ~ when we feel life has lost it's color! We can sense the emptiness, the gray and look robotic, going through the motions! Life's wonder has faded, we no longer feel we can conquer the world, as we did in our youth! We can sense the lack of purpose and direction, but are we looking in the right places?
It's never to late, to leave our prison cells and to live a life of expectant hope! To be refreshed, to be renewed, to soar, to use those gifts and abilities that God has given us in ways unimaginable ~ to drink in life, once again! It's possible! I'll say it again, IT'S NOT TOO LATE!
Have you been sucked into the pressure to conform ~ do you feel life is passing you by? Maybe, you feel what you "don't have" has left you with a disadvantage and you're discouraged and tired of fighting to make a way for yourself. Maybe, you've made some mistakes and don't know how to find your way back. The pressures of this world, our choices and others can make us feel we're inadequate, but it's a lie that Satan wants us to believe. He wants us to feel it's all been lost! God has a plan and purpose for your life, did you know that? Check it out! (If you know this verse, please hang in here with me a moment, there's more!)
Jeremiah 29:11 says,
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." That's God's promise!
That verse makes my heart soar, how about you? God has a plan and purpose for your life and mine, but it's found in Him! It says, "I KNOW the plans I have for you. (They are HIS plans) If we don't have a full understanding of that verse and the two verses that follow, we can grow discouraged in the waiting, expecting God to drop it all in our laps ~ we can lose heart! As my husband use to teach, with every promise comes a premise! The premise is (our part), and lies in the next two verses and we tend to leave those out and that can cause us to miss out on the promise, altogether, blaming ourselves, God and others for our demise ~ Check it out! Let's read all three verses together:
Jeremiah 29:11-13 says,
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me WITH ALL YOUR HEART."
Our hope and future, what we were created for, lies in God, He's our Creator ~ He, alone, knows what He created us for. God reveals His plans and purposes as we walk with Him. He says, "you will call upon me and pray to me" (the premise, our part) "and I will listen to you" (the promise, His part) "You will seek me" (the premise, our part) "and find me" (the promise, His part, to make Himself known) "when you seek me with all your heart." (the premise, our part). We do our part and God fulfills the promise! No man can take away, what God has ordained! Stop complaining and blaming others for your demise and get your eyes back on the ONE who fulfills His plans and purposes for you! Look to Him alone! Nobody's failed you! God alone knows and fulfills ~ and what He ordains, WILL BE, no man can stop Him! If you got your eyes off of Him and have looked to yourself or others to fulfill your dreams, put your eyes back on Him! Dream BIGGER, dream with God!
You can wait a life time for the plans and purposes God's created you for, but by leaving God out of the equation, seeking to make it happen on your own, will only set you up for disappointment! Our faith has to be focused on Him ~ His will, His plan for us, not ours! It's God's plan and purpose ~ you may want the blessing of having a plan, of knowing your purpose and desire to prosper, but God's plan can only be fulfilled by God, not by you!
We have to choose to walk with God, in His truths, in His ways! We can view God's commands as bunch of rules, but they are boundaries that were meant for our good, to set us free and keep us free! Just like, we, as parents, set rules for our children to keep them safe, healthy and happy. They can cross the road, without stopping to look, but they may reap the consequences. When we choose to be our own god and live our lives for ourselves, outside of God's boundaries, we too, someday will reap the consequences, but, even now, in this life we are missing out!
It's never too late! Throw off the chains that shackle, those things you've held on to, that you think you need! Set aside, the bitterness, the anger, the blame, the complaining about your demise and do your part and God will fulfill His purpose for you! It takes faith to believe God's plans are good for you, to trust they are better than what you are striving to accomplish on your own. It's time to dream BIGGER than yourself and celebrate your uniqueness that God designed, so specifically, to complete His purposes for your life! The you God created you to be! Align yourself with God ~ take that step of faith and give Him the reigns of your life and watch Him bless your socks off!
A man that is free to WALK with God, is a man free indeed! Don't buy into Satan's lies! Choose the freedom of living with the purpose, you were created to fulfill! What has God written on your heart to do? It's never to late, quit complaining and get on with it! Stop making excuses ~ step in faith and let God be God! You're on my heart, I'm praying for you! You matter to God, get back to Him, with expectant hope!
No comments:
Post a Comment