Do you believe God has a plan for you? I don't mean a general and very vague plan that would fit the life of thousands of followers if you tried to make it. I mean a very specific plan (or calling) that you know you were designed to do. One that fits the gifts and skill set that God has placed inside of you. We all have one, but do we really know what it is? There are many verses that support the fact that God has plans for us.....Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Isaiah 58:11 and Proverbs 16:9 are a few well known ones. The general theme behind these verses is the same. That God has a plan, He wants to reveal it to us and as we follow it, and His will for our life, He WILL take care of us. But those have to be more than just "power verses" that we quote, they have to be God's words that we believe.
Many years ago the I.T. department I work in hired a new manager. And when he came into the company he looked at the way we were doing things and began to make changes to make us a better department. One of the things he pointed out in the very beginning was the we did not have a mission statement. He didn't come to us and say "here I made one up for you guys" either. Instead, he asked us to think hard about what our jobs were, what service we wanted to provide to our company and how we could say all that in one simple statement. So over the next few days we did just that, and as a group we came up with a mission statement for our department. Please note, the first one we came up with was not the first one we went with. We had to really tweak it a few times to make sure it was not to vague, but also not to specific for what we were trying to say we do as a department. It was one of the first times we looked inward at our department and really thought about WHAT it is we are here to do. It was a great learning experience too!
Today, I felt God asking me to write a post challenging everyone to ask themselves if they have a mission statement for their life. Even if your church has one, you cannot be satisfied just fitting into that. You need to ask yourself what has God specifically called me to do to advance His kingdom here on earth? We each have one, there is no doubt about that. But until you sit down with yourself and God and truly try to put it to words, you may never really realize what it is. Just like in my department....we came in and did out jobs every day, but it wasn't until someone asked us to put it into words that we really realized what our "jobs" really were. It became way more than punching a clock and collecting a check at that point. It became something we personally put ownership to and found ourselves trying to live up to. When we said to our company "here is what we are going to do for you, and here is the level at which we will do it", and there became and expectation to follow through on that. Without that expectation it was really to easy to just "get by".
Without direction, a standard and a bold statement about what you feel God has called you to do, how will you ever know if you are doing it? It may take some time of really asking God to reveal it to you before you can just put it into words. But when you feel Him speak to you I would highly suggest writing it down. When it's all said and done you may have a page full of things you have heard God speaking into your heart... and then you will have to take those things and build a statement out of it. But please don't take this lightly. This will be you saying to God..."I hear you, I know what plans you have for me and I am going to put this to words, and DO it". There is not doubt in my mind that clarity and direction will soon follow if you are willing to dedicate yourself to discovering what God build you to do.
God, we do not deny the fact that Your word is very specific about You having plans for our life. So we ask now for You to reveal to us in a very specific way what they are. Do not let us be satisfied by just falling under the "work of the church", but instead, let us know that a body can't function correctly unless each member of that body is doing it's specific job....and you have one for us! We humbly thank You for trusting us to carry out Your work. And we know that You won't call us to do something unless You also equip us to do it! In Jesus name, Amen
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