A Purpose and a Plan

Hey there :)

So another thing that's been on my heart to write about is us having plans for our lives. Since before we were born since before our parents or their parents or theirs etc. were born God already knew exactly what our purpose would be. I just think that's mental! How crazy is it that there are specific things God wants us to do that only we can carry out because of the giftings and character we have been given?! Mental!

It says in Jeremiah 29:11 "The Lord says: For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." God knows these things and I used to be in a mindset that we would never know what these were until they were carried out. But recently, having gone to a camp called M:Powered, I've come to realise that actually we can enjoy discovering bits at a time with God. A quote I heard while I was there was that, to discover what our future holds and the plan God has created for us to carry out, we should look at the meanderings of our life. This basically means that all the twists and turns and good things and bad things that have brought us to the place where we are currently at could give us a clue to our future! So, say you had a really difficult family situation and you've had to learn how to communicate well with people in a conflict situation, that could signal something about what God has called you to do.

I think it's really healthy to see perhaps difficult things as a way to build your character. I know this can sometimes sound like a bit of an excuse for Christians who are trying to dismiss suffering in the world but if we are totally real and honest we can say that hard things have helped us develop as people.

The same can be said for preparing for marriage. This may sound like a strange thing to say coming from a young person who won't be getting married for a number of years but if you have members of the opposite sex you are close to for example in your family, now is a great time to learn things about them and get relationship tips sorted and grow to find ways of conflict resolution and how it is best to relate to them. Again, coming back to how useful it is to be single, these years, not only can be spent running full pelt after God but also learning and developing so that when the time for a relationship comes along in God's timing, your character is at the right place to take that step.

I just think it's amazing that God can use even the hardest situations for good. It isn't that He puts them there deliberately all the time. Sometimes He might. But I think a lot of the time, bad situations come up because God has given man free will and sometimes bad things happen. But instead of God just comforting us (which He does do excellently) but He also causes something greater than we could ever have imagined to rise from it.

To explain this practically, I heard a story of a Christian man who struggled with an addiction to gambling. God did help him to get over it and over the years he became free. However, God didn't let this go unnoticed, and now this man is involved with counselling gambling addicts himself. Because he understands the struggle he is the best man for the job! Isn't that incredible?

God wants us to live a life with no regrets. And this is not in the wordly sense of that phrase (as in, do whatever you like, you deserve pleasure! Because that is sinful and will end up hurting you in the end) But what He means by it is, that if you look back on hard times and you can see how it has helped you grow then that is the best kind of way to live.

My friend recently told me about an experience she had when she was prompted to look back on some of the hardest times of her life as if she was an observer on the outskirts of the situation. And she was asked to look for God and see where He was. She said she became really emotional when she saw that her unaware past self was stood next to God who was holding her hand throughout that rough situation. God doesn't leave us to struggle. He is always there and always has been and will be.

Sorry, I've veered off topic slightly!! But that's basically the gist of what I was wanting to say :)

E.C.