Believers are being pulled a thousand different ways these days. We’re told that we should get on certain bandwagons and that God won’t be pleased if we don’t. But something about this isn’t settling right, and many believers are not exactly sure how to feel about everything that is going on. The reality is that we have to be extremely cautious about the opinions of others, no matter who they are or what position they may hold. In the grand scope of our individual lives, what matters most is how we’re responding to our relationship with Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:13(NLT) tells us, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.” When everything is said and done, you alone will stand before God to give an account of the life you have lived. This truth makes it even more pressing that we live our lives in a way that pleases Heavenly Father. We must be always careful to walk in His love, and to also do what is necessary to have a meaningful and fulfilling existence for ourselves.
God’s Plan for Your Life
God has a plan for your individual life. This truth is so important that there isn’t a word in the English language that can capture its heft. Proverbs 19:21(NLT) tells us, “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” Some Christians are behaving as if what we do down here on earth can impede or slow the move of God’s agenda. Not true. Romans 8:28 affirms that God is the One who causes everything to work together. This is without exception. He has all power in His hands. He can wipe out any memory of any day in the minds of every person that has ever lived, and He can cause things to change within a nano second. God’s Power, Plan, and Purpose work perfectly, without a hitch. Our powerful God wove everything required for the function of the universe according to His Plan within the six days of His creation labor. Then, He rested, and when He rested, everything that needed to be done was done.
There’s a saying, “one monkey can’t stop the show.” In this same vain, none of us can stop God’s flow. He hasn’t changed nor will He ever change. He is as powerful and all-knowing today as He was when He parted the Rea Sea. The brilliance of His Plan can withstand anything that any of us might do. The thing that we must get into our heads is that God is doing His best to get the blessings through to us. We are the ones to intercept and interrupt what He has in store for our lives. He tells us in Ephesians 2:10(NLT), “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
God has a plan for your individual life, and this plan fits beautifully into His Plan for the entire universe. Rather than dabbling in areas we have no business and being concerned about things that have nothing to do with God’s agenda, the priority in our minds and the focus of our hearts should be to seek God for His plan for our individual lives.
Be Clear About What You Want
Faith requires focus. This is something you’ve probably heard me say or have seen in my teachings numerous times. Faith does not respond to whims. It responds to a fully persuaded belief and trust in God’s Word. When Abraham and Sarah received the enormous wealth of God’s promise, initially Sarah actually laughed because it seemed too farfetched. Both of them were beyond the years of childbearing and couldn’t completely wrap their heads around the reality of how God’s promise would be fulfilled. Abraham is known as the father of our believing. This is not because he instantly saw results after receiving the promise, but because he walked faithfully with God until his faith matured.
God knew that even though it would take some time, Abraham and Sarah would continue to partner with Him until the fruition of the promise came to pass. Sarah would become pregnant with Abraham’s son, Issac, at ninety years old. They didn’t allow the reality of their age to dismantle the faith of their conviction. Taking their cue, we must not allow the craziness of our time to alter our faith in God’s power and willingness to use it on our behalves.
Just as he was from the very beginning, satan is a master of deception. We are so focused on what he is doing in the world that we can’t even concentrate on our relationship with God and the blessings He wants to give us. Our faith is required; without it we can’t please God. Through His powerful and precious Son, Jesus Christ, God has promised healing, wholeness, and abundance. Many of us have been praying for quite some time for the fruition of these promises. We’ve been struggling with illness, financial stress, loneliness, and chronic sadness, and we want God to move, yet our minds and hearts are at times far from Him.
Jesus Christ said in Mark 7:6(NLT) about those who put tradition and culture above obedience to God, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” As God’s children that are living today in such modern conveniences and enlightenment about His Word, we should never allow this statement in Mark 7:6 to be said about our commitment. We must have faith in God!
What you have to do for ‘YOU’ is to get really clear about what you want from Him. Then you must pursue God in prayer. And it’s not just a repetitive “Oh God, give it to me, give it to me, give it to me, pleassssssse.” God knows what you want, and He knows how to bless you with it. We are the ones that must bring ourselves in alignment with the requirement of backing our faith. We become so impatient and easily distracted by the world’s shenanigans, and we ignore the reality that the eyes of God are upon us. He’s looking at our level of diligence to Him through Christ. He’s looking at what we’re doing to prepare for what we desire. He’s looking at the consistency with which we remain anchored in the steadiness of our conviction no matter what is happening around us.
People will often say, “I just don’t know what God wants from me. I don’t know what else to do.” But yet, those of us that have jobs can receive a directive from our bosses, and we figure out how to achieve the results he or she desires in record time. God expects us to listen to Him even more attentively as we would a boss. He expects that we will understand the walk of faith, and greet each day with a commitment to pray, give our days over to the Spirit, and go wherever the Spirit leads, and do whatever the Spirit tells us. Abraham and Sarah showed this level of commitment to God, and they didn’t have God’s Spirit dwelling inside them. So, we have no excuse. We must reign ourselves in and get focused on what God is doing in us through Jesus Christ. This is the best thing you can do, and it is what you must do for the betterment of your life. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“What You Have to Do for YOU” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!