He Has a Plan for You

After a hard conversation with a friend who is going through a big valley, and listening to a worship song this morning at church, came these thoughts.

A line from the song is, "I have a plan, I have a plan, for you."  I believe that God's ultimate plan for our lives is to bring us to Himself.  It's not about what we will do for God, or what we will accomplish for Him in this life--those aren't "the plans" He has for us--it will be an awesome byproduct, but not the original plan.  His plans for us are to be with Him fully and completely; for ALL of us to be with ALL of Him.

Now, we won't fully accomplish this until we are out of our fleshly bodies, but we can move towards this goal now. 

As we keep going through life's hard challenges, struggles, and pain, He uses these things to try to bring us to Him fully; desiring us to surrender everything: every wall, every mask, every thought, every emotion, every desire, every dream, every circumstance, our entire heart.  When He fully has ALL of us we see MORE and MORE of Him, and in this we become fully alive, filled with His glory, aware of His grace and mercy, changed by his love, and surrounded by His wonderful fragrance.  THESE are the plans He has for us.

Now imagine going in to the world from this place!