God Has a Plan For You

Have you ever wondered about God’s plan for your life? I think sometimes it is easy to look back on our lives and see in hindsight God’s hand moving. The circumstances we were walking through at the time may not have made sense. However, once we went through those circumstances and gained a different perspective, things became more clear. There are many people in the Bible that I am sure felt the same way. We have the advantage of knowing most of their stories from beginning to end, but they did not have that same perspective. Just like us, they had to walk through their journey trusting God.

My journey to becoming a mom definitely did not make sense to me. I always wanted to be a mom. I love being around children. They see the world very differently than adults which is often refreshing. There is also so much potential and destiny wrapped up in tiny packages. It is fun, I think, to watch them grow and change and discover who they are. I taught elementary school for twenty – three years and spoke into many children’s lives. I really felt God had placed me there for a purpose, and I took my job of encouraging and building children up seriously. Everyone needs a cheerleader in their life. Sometimes I was one of many cheerleaders in these children’s lives, and sometimes I was the lone cheerleader. Whichever it may have been, I enjoyed speaking destiny, purpose and life over these children. 

I also had amazing examples in my own life. My mom was and still is an encourager as well as a voice of “have you thought this all the way through?” in my life. She has been my cheerleader and has constantly reminded me that I have a great destiny in the Lord. She also believes strongly in the power of prayer which I feel she received from her mom and has passed to me. My mom has also been a spiritual mother to many others who also needed encouragement, direction, and help along the way. I am blessed beyond measure to be able to call her mom. 

As my life continued on and I was single for way longer than I thought I would be, the question of will I even have the opportunity to be a mom definitely came up. It was a constant area in my heart that I had to lay down to God. One day, I was dusting a picture of my niece as I tidied my house, and the thought went through my head, “I wish I had been given the opportunity to become a mom. I think I would have been a good mom.” In the next heartbeat, I heard the Holy Spirit say, “I thought you had given your life to me. Are you taking it back?” The voice of the Holy Spirit even when He is correcting is unbelievably kind. I immediately repented and said absolutely not. I do not understand this, but I am not taking my life back. My life is yours. 

It was less than two years later when I met and married my husband. My husband and his late wife adopted two children. I am now mom to these two precious children. I still don’t understand God’s plan, and I probably never will.  But you know what? I don’t have to. What I do know is that these two children needed a mom, and I have the absolute honor of being chosen to help parent them. I think the Lord bringing me to quick repentance over that thought I had a couple of years earlier was His kindness to not let a thought grab hold of me and keep me from what He had planned. That one thought could have led me down a path of bitterness and anger that could have kept me from seeing the blessing God had for me. The Holy Spirit in His infinite kindness was quick to correct me. 

One of the most wonderful and often quoted promises in scripture is from Jeremiah 29:11. It says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” In other words God is for you not against you. He can use all of the circumstances in your life for your good. Let’s be clear. He does not cause death and destruction or bad things to happen to you. He is an absolutely good God and bad things do not come from Him. However, in His goodness, He can use any circumstance, good or bad, for your good and not your demise. 

Another wonderful promise in the Bible is Romans 8:28. It says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”(NKJV) The Passion Translation says, “So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.” 

So God says, you know that circumstance the enemy wanted to use to destroy you? I am going to take that and turn it around for your good. If you will let me, not only will it not destroy you, it will make you stronger. And the very thing that the enemy wanted to use to take you out, you will use to destroy him. How is that for a promise?! 

Friend, God longs to connect with you, to partner with you and to love you through every circumstance in your life. He loves you more than you can understand and He gave up everything He had to have a relationship with you. I challenge you that if there is an area of your life that you don’t understand the why of what is happening, talk with God about that area. Say to Him, Lord I don’t understand and I don’t have to understand, but I do trust you to use this for my good and not my destruction. Then watch and see what He will do! We are victorious in Him!