Discovering God

Discovering God’s plan by focusing on His purposes.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29 v 11-13

It seems amazing to me that the God who created the world has plans for us and that those plans were prepared for us before the very foundations of the world.God has plans laid out for us and those plans are not worked out individually but in relationship with others through the local church.

What do they look like? Well they are plans for our welfare to give us a future and a hope. The word welfare here is the Hebrew word Shalom and encompasses so much more than the English word welfare. God’s plans are for our Shalom which actually means – completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, safety, soundness (in body), health, prosperity, quiet, tranquility, contentment. So God has a plan for us that gives us a future and a hope and provides a final outcome of Shalom. The King James Version uses the term – “expected end”. God has a plan for His people with an expected end of Shalom.

How do I enter into and discover the plans He has for us? I believe the plan of God unfolds as we put him first in our lives. Jesus said “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” If we seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of God then all the things we are in need of will be added to us.

Put another way if we seek first HIS PURPOSE (the kingdom) and HIS PERSON IN JESUS (his righteousness) then all these things will be added to us.

The Purposes of God can be summed up in 3 areas;

1) To Love God
2) To Love one another
3) To preach the gospel to all nations

The interesting thing about all of these activities is that they involve loving others.

If I give myself to Loving God, loving my brother and sister in the local church family and to reaching out to my neighbour with the gospel of love then I start giving myself to the purposes of God.

As we give ourselves to His purposes then we find that He starts to unfold HIS plan for us. If you are struggling to know the next step in the out working of God’s plan then start by turning your heart toward His purposes. You cannot out give your heavenly Father so the more you give yourself to Him the more you release Him to work on your behalf.

Embrace the adventure and take the steps of faith forward that will see you fulfill the plan He has for you.
Alex