Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

I meet so many people who think their life is some random existence—people that doubt there is any kind of God-given plan for their life. That couldn’t be more wrong!  God has a plan for your life that He greatly desires to lead you in. But, it takes strong faith to believe that. Do you know why? Because when you talk about a plan for your life, you are talking about the future—things unseen and things unknown. And they are exactly that! If they are unseen and unknown, how can you trust that a plan exists or know what that plan is? You couldn’t without the Lord. Only the Lord knows the future and the plan He has for your life!  Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV) says, “Before I formed you
in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” He set us apart for His particular plan! 

Life planning can be fearful and intimidating because of the unknown, the self-doubts, and unsurety as to whether you’ll be successful in getting to your desired results.

When you think of the word plan, you might think of a simple plan. Not too overly complicated—like building a plan for your day. You think of all the things you need to do: build a task list, prioritize it’s order, and then pursue it step-by-step. You may have set that up in your daily calendar or planner, or you have simply scribbled on a sheet of paper. Getting that kind of a plan has little risk and takes little faith. Its just a matter of executing. That kind of planning may be part of an ongoing bigger picture and plan. Then each day is a working part of a bigger picture. But, if it’s not and you’re just moving from day to day, without thought to where it’s leading you, then its somewhat random. It’s more of a survival effort than any kind of a plan. And sadly, that is what far to many people’s lives are like. And they don’t know God has a much better plan to lead them in!

So why should you believe what I’m proposing when many would consider it nonsense? You should because the very nature of God and what we know of Him through His word, help us understand that to believe anything less is nonsense. God’s plan and planning is throughout the entire Bible.

Consider Romans 8:14 (NLT) “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” This verse is a part of other verses that say God doesn’t want us led around by fleshly carnal desires. They reveal that by receiving Jesus, we received His Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit has set us free being a slave to sin and carnality. And because of that, we can be led in our hearts by the Holy Spirit in the will and plan of God. And so, this reveals— God’s children are let by the Holy Spirit. God isn’t random and doesn’t lead you to random.

Now let’s back up. Let’s back up all the way prior to God creating the world we live in. Imagine that before God ever created the world we live in, He knew every detail of every aspect of the creation and people He was about to create including every detail of every person’s life. And in that plan, His perfect will was putting Himself in your path where Jesus would be revealed to you with the hope you would make the choice to receive Him. From there, He would lead you by His Spirit into the plan He had for you. Does that sound wild or far-fetched? It isn’t! God has had a plan from the beginning―before He ever created the world we live in!

Ephesians 1:3-5 (NLT) “How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ. Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure.”

Can you see that God has always had a plan for you? Before He created the world He had a plan for you. Let’s read further:

Ephesians 1:9-14 (NLT) “God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. God’s purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God. And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.”

This is a devotion and not a book so I can’t write volumes about this. But I hope today I have helped you see that life isn’t random. Jesus wants you as His. That has been the plan from the beginning and God has always been working to lead you to Himself. When you receive Jesus as your Savior, He gives you the Holy Spirit to live within you and lead you.

He does have a plan that will unfold as you draw close to God and follow His leading. He wants to lead you in it daily. It will take faith and trust. It won’t always be clear and easy to see. It will take faith every day. But if you will have faith and confidence in this truth, you will being to experience it for yourself. Then simply ask the Lord to lead you every day. He wants to lead you away from random and get you to begin to think big picture. It unfolds day-by-day. Clarity of His plan comes through hindsight! You can look back and see all God has done! So, let go of the fear and seek Him and thank Him that He has a plan. And then pay attention! Watch as the Lord begins to lead you by His Holy Spirit.

Psalm 32:8 (NLT) “The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”

In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt

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Published by Pastor Tim Burt
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