Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Are you with me there that before you start doing something, you want to know the purpose for it. What's the point of this? You want to know the purpose before you even start making plans. Before I even start wasting my time making plans for something, I have to understand the purpose and the point of this.
If it seems pointless or there's no purpose for it, it's difficult to make plans to match that, isn't it? If you feel that way, perfect. That's exactly where we're at with the Verse of the Day today.
Understanding God's Will vs. God's Purpose
Now some of you may be sitting there thinking, "Wait, let me get this straight. I can't make plans for my life? I can't do what I want and make plans?" Well, this verse isn't necessarily subverting what you want to do or the plans that you have for your life, but I would love to just take a quick step back.
When we're talking about plans for our life or seeking God, we tend to defer to words of, “We want to seek God's will for our life.” It's how we tend to label that, and I just want to share something with you that God taught me quite a while ago that really brought a lot into focus and gave me a lot of clarity.
What I found myself doing is I would be seeking God and His will for what I wanted to do and what decisions I needed to make in the midst of it. I would spend so much time praying. I'd listen to messages. I'd read books of how to discern God's will and be looking for all of these different signs or ways He might be leading or directing… and I would get lost. It's like I'm not hearing anything. I think, "Lord, I just want direction of what I'm supposed to be doing."
God's Clear Communication
Here's what God clearly communicated to me. He said, "David, why are you so passionate and why do you spend so much time seeking My will, My direction, My purpose for things that you want to do? Meanwhile, I have given you 66 books of My will. I have given you 66 books of My purpose, of what I want for you. How much time have you taken to actually want to learn My will? How much time have you taken to learn the purpose that I have for you in My Word that I've already given you?"
That completely changed everything for me. Then I became passionate about really looking at the Word of God differently, looking at the Bible differently. It's now not just a religious text or a religious book. I now looked at it as, "What can I do to actually learn from God what His purpose and plan are for me, and what it is for all of us? And what does that look like?" That's so amazing that He gave that kind of clarity.
I'm telling you, it has completely changed my walk with Him and it's completely changed any time I come to making a decision. It's changed how I view it. I'm no longer wringing my hands and nervous. "Am I going to make the right decision? I want to do the right thing." Now, I'm walking with Him every day in His Word. I care more about what His purpose is for my life in general, and then I start making plans accordingly. I've seen it become so much more successful.
Jesus: The Perfect Example
I just want to put a little bit of a different spin on this thought. When Jesus came here, He knew exactly His purpose for His life, for being here. He knew very clearly what His purpose was. Imagine if He started developing plans to take His dad's carpentry business to a whole new level of success. He could have, but He knew His purpose, and it drove His plans that He made for His life and how He lived out His life.
He could have sat back and said, "I know My purpose. I'm going to fulfill it, and that's good. That's done. I don't need to do more. I'm going to be doing enough." His plans mirrored His purpose to impact us in our lives. To give us an example of how to live as our amazing Savior, as our amazing and best teacher, He demonstrated how we can live out our plans to fulfill God's purpose in our life.
Moving Forward
Seek His purpose today. Develop your plans that are more in line with what His purposes are. Because He still wants you to be successful in your life by living out His purpose to make an eternal impact for those around you.
