His Vision for Your Life
In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
––Proverbs 3:6
God’s vision for you is solid, invincible, and has been in place for a long time. It is an oak tree—rooted, grounded, and able to withstand very strong winds of crisis and chaos. Only arrogance or ignorance would attempt to displace it, cheat it, or ignore it—and yet we do. We presume to design what we will become in Him. Which is as ridiculous as a tropical fish demanding it be placed in the toilet bowl rather than a perfectly designed aquarium.
We chase our fantasies over His chosen vision. We forecast and fashion our lives in our own image. We reengineer ourselves for cultural acceptability. We shape our dreams around our own insecurities and dysfunctional tendencies. As a result, we short-circuit His power and usurp His throne, placing a cheap, imitation crown on our own heads, rather than acknowledging His reign in our lives and bending the knee to His sovereignty.
I wonder what God thinks of all our presumptions, our engineering of His plan for our lives. The dream we have for ourselves is unnatural; it is not God’s dream for us. God tells us in numerous places and in numerous ways:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
––Isaiah 55:8-9
If salvation is not a result of what we do, then why would we think His vision of greatness as a man would be dependent upon our exploits? God set Samuel straight when he set about looking for God’s man among Jesse’s sons, remember? David wasn’t even a consideration, until Samuel pressed Jesse, and asked if he had any other sons.
God’s dream for your life is not external—designed to impress, and it’s not internal—a value or a purpose. It’s not even a spiritual discipline or set of beliefs. God’s dream for you is a heaven-owned vision of greatness, a God’s-man image built upon that of the God-Man.
You have known this and felt it inside of you ever since you were a little boy. It’s time for all of us to recapture it. God does not love you because. He just loves you. Make sure you don’t love Him just because. Seek His unconditional love and pay it forward.
Father, thank You for the building process of maturity into my life, and help me fully surrender to Your process, and not my own.