This week we’ve talked about dreaming big dreams. I’ve shared some of my personal big dreams, and some of the big dreams we’re dreaming with and for our children. Just as we have dreams for our children, our parents have dreams for us. But I wonder - do you know that God, your heavenly Father, has big dreams for your life?
The very familiar passage when talking about God’s plans for our lives is 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.” But the verses surrounding that particular verse hold some great truths in knowing that God already has plans for our lives. Jeremiah 29:10-15
10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 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. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
God had a plan for those who were in exile. The verbs used even indicate that these are future plans - the verse say, “I will come to you,” and, “I will be found by you,” and those are promises for the future.
In order to have promises for the future, one has to have already considered the situation. You can’t have specific future plans unless you’ve done some specific future thinking.
In Ephesians 1:4, we find that we were chosen, even before the beginning of the world: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
I won’t even touch the whole predestination discussion that usually occurs around that passage. But if we believe that the Bible is God’s Word to us, then no matter which side of predestination you come down on, the truth still remains: God chose us. And if He chose us (wanted us - wants us), then He must have a plan for us!
Psalm 139:13-18 gives us such a beautiful look at God creating us, and wanting us from the beginning:
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How beautiful - He spent so much time and care in creating us to be just who we are. We weren’t made to act like, look like, or be anyone else. Even identical twins can be used by God in vastly different ways, as God works in their lives.
See that truth in verse 16? “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Before we drew our first breath, God already knew us, knew what He had ordained (planned, decreed) for us.
As you consider your life, and the lives of your family members, remember to dream big dreams. The God who created you and me is the same God who parted the Red Sea, raised the dead, and worked to perform numerous miracles that are recorded for us in Scripture. And He has a great big plan for your life! Don’t sell Him short; don’t put God in a box or shrink Him to human-sized. Ask God to fill your heart with HIS God-sized dream for your life!
As we close out this series on dreaming big dreams, I want to leave you with this from Ephesians 3:20,21 as a prayer for us as we live our lives in the God-sized plans that He has for us!
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
For the rest of this series:
1. Dream Big Dreams
2. Dream Big Dreams {For Our Children}
3. God’s Big Dreams {For Your Life}
I am so excited to have found this post via Desire To Inspire, I have just written about Dreams and Passions. I hope you wont mind if I pop your blog on my link up. I look forward to the series. Have a wonderful day. Tara.
Tara recently posted…Five Minute Friday {Lonely}
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Rebekah Reply:
August 9th, 2013 at 6:26 am
Thank you for sharing my blog on your link up; what a blesing! I appreciate you taking time to leave me a note here - have a blessed day!
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