Friday, November 8, 2019

What Does God Have Planned For You?




      In this life we have choices and we always will. Our God did not create us as puppets with strings attached, but rather with a free will to choose every day.  The first significant choice we have is will we trust God with our sins. Let’s admit it, we all sin and the Bible confirms this when the Apostle Paul wrote”for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23.  Do we agree with God’s Word that we have sinned against God?  
           
     
When I was growing up as a young man in Maine my parents would take me to Catechism but they didn’t live it out like it was real to them so it was not real to me either. By the time I was 11 they just stopped going to Mass. I remember my sins well and how real to me they became. How I dealt with my sins was to ignore them and not listen to my conscience.  I lied to my parents, stole money from my dad’s wallet among many other things. Within a few years I was running with the wrong crowd of kids that did even worse things. I was sinning against my family and against God’s standards for my life. I knew better but didn’t really care. 

          I willfully lived in increasing sins against God until I was 19 years old. It was then that I was faced with my own eternal reality. Did I want to admit my sins to God and ask Him to forgive me or did I want to ignore God and His plan to forgive me? I knew true forgiveness from God meant truly willing to stop all the sinning.  I became aware that the plan of God was to truly forgive me, but my part was to really be willing to stop the sinning as well.  If I was willing to stop sinning then God had a plan for me. I remember weighing out my sinful deeds & behaviors in my mind and deciding if I was willing to really stop sinning or not.  It was the biggest choice I faced as a teenager. I decided to walk away from sinful behaviors and walk toward God by faith. Those choices led to different friends, different jobs and a new church and seeking out what God planned for me.  

          At that stage of my life it became what God wanted me to do next. Since I was young it was education. God wanted to educate me more, now that my mind and heart were cleared out of the influence of drugs.  God gave me choices and I followed the ones I sensed would please Him and I desired. God was changing my desires and giving me the desires of my heart.  I didn’t know exactly what He had planned for me but I followed the path that kept opening up before my eyes. That path took me to 3 colleges before finally graduating where I met my wife. God had plans for me and I was trying to follow them and He kept leading me so I kept following what He revealed over 6 years. I believed God has plans for everyone at every age and stage of life. If you are willing to let go of your sins he will can and will change your life from the inside out. If we are willing to follow His plan and listen to Him, while maintaining a clean conscience and a pure heart He will reveal an wonderful plan for your life no matter what the past has been.  
          In my 6th year of college I meet the love of my life and married her. We celebrate 30 years together this month. What plans did God now have for us together?  Yes God has plans for couples as much as singles and He can lead people together to discover his plans and purposes.  We both wanted 4 children and God gave us a bonus and we have 5 children.  God now has plans for their lives as we have taught them to seek God and his plan for their lives.  

“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.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

God has a plan for you as well. It starts with forgiven of sins and progresses in a wonderful journey.  Does this mean you and I will not have to experience pain and suffering? The answer to that is no. Pain and suffering happens to all of us with or without God in our daily lives.  Since we live in a fallen world full of others who do not seek God and choose to live in their sins, then we will suffer at various times and seasons. God has plans for you and can restore and make a way even when there seems to be no way. 
     
Seek the Lord and see what he has in store for your days. He loves you, he died and rose again for you and has plans for you.  “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.””
Joshua 24:15 
 
Bob Dylan wrote a song many years ago called, ‘You have to serve somebody”.  I will leave you with a few lines
 You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
Indeed you're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody”


Remember God has a plan for your life.   He created you and cares about you.  Seek the Lord while He may be found. 

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