📖 Word For The Day: Personally Pre-Planned By God
Good morning Church Family,
Whatever the circumstances surrounding your birth, your parents, and the place you were born – you were personally pre-planned by the Creator God.
Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”Galatians 1:15-16
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.
God created your innermost being and fashioned you in your mother’s womb to be perfectly equipped to fulfill His plan and purpose for your life. God planned this purpose before you were born! “Who you are is not a biological accident. What you are is not a circumstantial accident. God planned both.” (Trusting God, p.166)
Just as you must trust God for who you are, you must also trust Him for what you are. You may be an engineer, teacher, missionary, or mechanic, but whatever you are, God intentionally structured you for this! Some estimates indicate that 80% of people are dissatisfied with the job that they do. You must realize that God has a plan for you; don’t be reluctant to accept it.
“God is the God of society as well as the Church, and He determines the course of our lives in the natural realm as well as in the Church. He ordained the days of the plumbers just as much as He did for pastors.” (p.167)
To realize that God fashioned you and that God pre-planned the space that you are in right now lends value and meaning to you and your work! The Christian perspective is that our jobs are not a necessary evil, but the place where God has placed us to serve Him and serve others. Our jobs are where we are strategically placed to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
So this is why Paul wrote this to Christian slaves in the Colossian Church,
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
These Christians were to work at their jobs with enthusiasm and honor because they worked for the LORD. They were doing the things that God ordained for them before they were born. This truth gives meaning and purpose to every day that we live. This day and all its activities have been appointed by God. Even the most difficult or the most boring, tedious days in our lives are ordained by God and ought to be used by us to glorify Him.
There are many aspects of your life that you might wish were different. Take comfort today in the hope God gave to the Jewish captives in Babylon,
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Go out with confidence that God has a plan and purpose for your life, and everything that comes your way today is part of that plan!
Have a great Friday! Hope to see you all in Church this Sunday. We will begin a new series in the Book of Jonah!
Pastor Phil