God’s Plan For Your Life

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

(John 3:16-17)

“After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.’”

(Matthew 3:16-17)

I’ve heard it over and over again: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”

This is the spiel when we’re trying to convince someone to “convert.”

It’s half true.

God does love you.

The rest is all about how you define “wonderful.”

No doubt many future converts hear that phrase and assume it means that life is going to be good, their health will improve, their finances will prosper, their relationships will work out, and God will generally make things go their way.

And then life happens.

People get sick. Marriages fail. Children make terrible choices. Jobs disappear. Friends die. Prayers seem to go unanswered.

And a lot of people end up disappointed in God because somewhere along the way they were sold a gospel that Jesus never promised.

In truth, God’s plan for your life looks a lot more like the life of Christ—and the story of redemption we find throughout both the Old and New Testaments.

It looks like this:

slavery → deliverance → covenant → wilderness → promised land

Israel was delivered from slavery in Egypt.

They entered into covenant with God.

And then they went into the wilderness.

The wilderness wasn’t a detour from God’s plan.

The wilderness was part of the journey.

And I think we need to remember that.

Your entrance into the people of God is through baptism.

When Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened and the voice of God declared:

“This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

Notice what God didn’t say.

He didn’t say, “This is my Son because he made all the right choices.”

He didn’t say, “I’m glad you chose properly because I was fixin’ to fry you forever.”

He said:

“This is my dearly loved Son.”

And in Christ, that is the word we are invited to hear as well.

We come to God because of his love and kindness.

If we come to God primarily out of fear, we’ll never learn to experience his love for us. We’ll always be afraid he’s about to gather some kindling.

When we come to him, we are freed from the slavery of sin and delivered into new life through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

We become partakers of the new covenant, sealed in his blood.

But then something happens that doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough in the “wonderful plan” version of Christianity.

After his baptism, Jesus was sent into the wilderness to be tempted.

The beloved Son went into the wilderness.

And so will we.

We will be sent out into the wilderness of this world, with all its temptations, suffering, injustice, disappointment and sin.

That wilderness is not evidence that God has abandoned us.

It is part of the pilgrimage.

The Christian life is not a straight line from conversion to comfort.

There will be wonder.

There will be joy.

There will be answered prayers and unexpected grace.

But there will also be pain, suffering, loneliness and grief.

There will be days when the wilderness seems to stretch on forever.

And yet the promise remains.

We are not wandering aimlessly.

We are on our way home.

Our promised land is the kingdom of God—the restoration of all things, when death itself is finally defeated.

And like Jesus, we will pass through the door of death to arrive home.

So yes…

God loves you.

And God does have a wonderful plan for your life.

But “wonderful” doesn’t necessarily mean comfortable.

It means that through all of it—the slavery, the deliverance, the covenant, the wilderness and finally the promised land—God is with you.

And if anyone is still interested…

We’re still taking applications for disciples.