So what is God’s plan for your life? I am an inveterate “googler” – and when I typed in “discover God’s plan for my life,” Google blessed me with over 500 000 websites devoted to that topic. “God’s plan for my life” is apparently pretty important, and if I’m really good and send my name, address, phone number, and email address I can receive weekly insights that will help me discover what God’s plan for my life really is – or at least, a close approximation.
Of course, I rather suspect there’s an unwritten assumption there – that if my life is in shambles, it’s because I’m not following God’s plan for my life.
But does it really work that way? If God has a plan for your life, does following it mean life is easy? Or is there the standard excuse – “no, it makes life harder but more worth it. I have to follow what God wants for my life.”
I’ll be honest, and tell you that I don’t put a lot of value on any literature, program, or presentation that promises to help me find “God’s plan for my life.” I don’t really care for them, beloved, because God is going to act out God’s plan for your life whether you like it, agree with it, follow it, or not. God doesn’t need your permission.
But let me talk about what God does expect from you, or maybe I can even tell you what I think God needs from you. But so far as I know, only one person was ever told what’s God’s plan for people was – and that was Joseph.
Joseph is really the reason I don’t like the ‘God’s plan for my life’ language. Because we often miss the man who Joseph is. He’s either a second-role player, relegated to the back of the line in the manger scene, or he becomes the hero, taking charge, taking Mary to Bethlehem, finding the stable, doing those things that heroes do.
Yet stop for a minute and consider the society Joseph lived in. Think of this particular community, fifty or sixty years ago. What happened when someone became pregnant out of wedlock? And what would have happened if that someone became pregnant before living her fiancé, and everyone knew that the baby wasn’t his?
Now imagine a society in which that’s punishable by death, or in the best case being expelled and shunned by the family. It’s called an ‘honour code,’ and it still exists in many countries in the
Do you really that Joseph liked ‘God’s plan’ for his life? Oh by the way, Joseph, I’m going to publically shame you. When you’re engaged, she’s going to get pregnant. And people will talk, but you won’t do anything about it. In fact, you’ll marry her anyway. But you won’t do what comes naturally to young couples. Until I’m done with her.
What Joseph did had the potential to ruin his life.
That’s the kicker, isn’t it? There’s a fine line between following God’s plan, and being off your rocker.
I remember hearing in a sermon a story about a young woman who decided to follow ‘God’s plan’ for her life. Her plan included an MBA from a business school and a prosperous life. But then she heard a couple of stories about development work in
And she gave up her expensive education. Went and worked as a volunteer. Took classes at a Seminary. Sold her car, stopped visiting the boutique stores, stopped martini lunches and girl’s night out.
Her family’s response was to prosecute her campus pastor, who they blamed for her transformation. Accusations of ‘cult leader’ followed, and the family enlisted a deprogrammer to get their daughter back.
So I think that the biggest reason I don’t like the language of “God’s plan for my life,” is that it’s usually conditional on two things: 1) that it agrees with what I want for my life, or 2) something horrible happens and there has to be a ‘why’.
But I’ll tell you what: I think that God has already revealed God’s plan for your life. A messenger of God revealed it to Joseph, and Scripture has given it to you. It’s not a ‘how to’ list. It’s not a not a ‘must do’ list.
God’s plan for you is revealed in a baby. Mary will bear a son, and he will be named him Jesus – Joshua in Hebrew – for he will save his people from their sins. ‘Joshua’ means simply “God saves” – so there is salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. God’s plan for your life is your salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Because if there’s any one common denominator in the bible, it’s that God is sovereign. God reigns over all things, and really, I find it difficult to believe that God cares which financial planner you use, that you find ‘financial freedom’. I think God cares more that you use your blessings to care for God’s church and God’s people, and God’s creation than how much you hoard.
I think that part of the issue of “God’s plan” is that we tend to drastically overthink what exactly that means. Often, we tend to think of in terms of ‘predestination’ – the idea that God has elected chosen people since the beginning of time for heaven, and knows every choice we are going to make.
Over and against that, is the idea of free will – that we can act independently. We have free will, right? We can choose to do right, or wrong.
Wrong. Because beloved, your free will is bound to sin. You see, God doesn’t weigh everything on a scale – on August 13 you mowed the neighbours lawn (check) but on December 9 you yelled at the grocery girl for being too slow – God sees everything as a whole, and the bad always outweighs the good. You can’t save yourself.
So here’s the two simple propositions of God’s plan:
1) Jesus is Emmanuel, God saves through God with us; and,
2) God has saved you, because God acted.
This is the scandal of this time of year, beloved. That’s God’s incarnation in that little weak baby passes by entirely unnoticed. Everybody else is looking for the Messiah they want – the coming-on-the-clouds type – God comes into the lives of two ordinary people, turns those lives upside down, and they are forever changed.
Yet we’ll hear in the weeks to come that not even Mary and Joseph totally understood who – or what – Jesus was. And that’s fine. Because neither do we.
When we fall into the cycle of trying to see God’s plan for our lives, well, we come right back to the same self-centred, sinful position. God’s plan for MY life. How do I live better?
When you are engaged in the life of God – the church and the world – you begin to see that you are part of a picture that is so much bigger than yourself and your concerns. And you will begin to understand that God’s plan was your salvation through Jesus Christ.
What God expects – or what God needs from us – is faith. But God hedges his bets, and the Holy Spirit draws us into life with God. But faith is a game-changer, because when you find faith, you find a different kind of life.
A life that isn’t lived so that you can find God’s plan by being good, or doing good things that seem to be on the right track. Instead, because God has acted, life is lived because you know that God saved the world through Jesus Christ. Your salvation is joy – and your life becomes testimony to that.
The ancient Israelites waited and waited and waited for their God to be with them. Through times of prosperity it was easier to believe; in times of trouble it was harder yet they still waited. Looking for signs of God, that God truly was with them. God had promised, had laid out their salvation from the foundation of the world, and God would not – did not – forsake them.
Today we are a little bit more blessed to see a sign of the
Today we celebrate the presence of God in Wanda’s life; we rejoice that God has brought her here, called her through the Gospel and enlightened her by the Holy Spirit, just as God has called, gathered, and enlightened us all.
We who wait are blessed by “God with us,” and God alone is sovereign. As Wanda is baptized today, take some time to reflect on your salvation – know that God is with you, blesses you every day, and cherishes you as one of God’s own children.
Let the people of God say amen.
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