Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart! (Jeremiah 1:5, NIV).


I want to be successful – don’t you? And the awesome news is that God wants us to be successful as well. When we know and seek God's perfect plan for our lives, we will find success. Our immeasurable value rests solely in the fact that God created us, that His stubborn love sets us apart and the amazing fact that He designed and empowers a unique plan for each one of us. Yes, I know that plans are rampant in your life. God loves you and everyone else has a plan for your life, right? But the only plan that matters is the plan made for you by the One who formed you - the One who loves you, knows you and has set you apart to be His own. And it is a great plan!

1.Your life plan is customized. Psalm 139:16 You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!

You were born in response to the determined plan of God, not as an afterthought. Before you took even one breath, every day, every step and every circumstance in your plan was recorded. God's plan uses your strengths as well as your weaknesses. We all have strengths - they are part of the plan. We all have limitations - they are also part of the plan. We all have seasons of life that are essential to the plan as well. True success comes when, instead of constantly fighting against or trying to change the plan, we learn to identify and build on our strengths, accept the limitations as hedges of protection from God, and yield to the seasons in life as God's avenue of perfect timing. God's plan for you is not a "one-size-fits all." It is customized and just your size.

2. Your life plan is good. 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.”

For some reason we tend to think that God sat down one day and designed a sinister life plan laced with pain and defeat. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This train of thought contradicts the very nature of God and misunderstands His heart - the heart of a loving Father who wants the absolute highest and best plan for His child. It is a good plan!

3. Your life plan is guaranteed. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

God always empowers what He calls us to do. With the plan comes every resource that we will need to accomplish that plan. Our life mission was really quite simple. We try and often succeed in filling every waking moment with activity. Oh, it is wonderful activity filled with good things - but they were not the best things or the highest things for our life. We do many of those things in order to feel worthy and important, hoping they would bring our lives into balance and under control. We hoped that doing good things would provide a purpose and plan for the restlessness in our soul.  We discover a truth that has redefined who we are and alters our soul perception of God. We now realize that the most powerful life flows from a clear life plan not to it!

How do we discover our life plan?

At first glance, that question may seem complicated and almost impossible to answer, but when we spend time with the Plan Maker, that question is easily answered as we step out in obedience to God. When we begin to saturate daily life with His truth and continually turn our hearts to conversation with God, His plan naturally unfolds as we take every "next step" in obedience. Consider the following questions when praying about and asking God to reveal His plan for your life:

· What are your spiritual gifts?
· What are you passionate about?
· What are your natural abilities?
· What is your personality type?
· What are the spiritual markers in your life?
· What do others see in you?

 We realize that we have lived a great deal of our lives based on the wrong plan. We began to ask these questions, looking for the gifts He has given us instead of the ones we thought we should have or wanted to have. We began to accept our limitations knowing that He had woven them into the seams of our journeys for our good. We begin yielding to the seasons of life, trusting Him to lead the way through this foreign land called life.

Guess what? We look around one day to find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of His life plan for us. It was suddenly so simple and amazingly clear! We learn to say "no" to those things that do not fit into that life mission. Certainly, we fail and have to begin again. And sometimes we are misunderstood because we have chosen to follow God's plan instead of someone else's. But we would rather be misunderstood than disobedient. We have to choose a new audience for this race of life. We have to make a decision about the One we wanted to please. Don’t waste another minute on anything but God’s very best plan for your life.

 

“But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,” (Philippians 2:7 NIV).


Soren Kierkegaard crafted a parable titled, “The King and His Maiden” to demonstrate the lengths God took to win our hearts. It goes something like this:

Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents.

And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden who lived in a poor village in his kingdom. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist-no one dared resist him. But would she love him?

She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know for sure? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal.

The king, convinced he could not elevate the maiden without crushing her freedom, resolved to descend to her. Clothed as a beggar, he approached her cottage with a worn cloak fluttering loose about him. This was not just a disguise—the king took on a totally new identity—He had renounced his throne to declare his love and to win hers.

Likewise, the King, your King, lowered himself to a place of putting on human flesh in His pursuit of your heart. Paul described it this way:

[Jesus] who, being in very nature God,
Did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
But made himself nothing,
Taking the very nature of a servant,
Being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself
And became obedient to death –
Even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
And gave him the name that is above every name,
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
In heaven and on earth and under the earth,
And every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
To the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:6-11)

Why would God do such a thing? Because He loves you and longs to have an intimate, personal relationship with you. It was a high price to pay, but Jesus knew you were worth it.

Oh friend, you are not only chosen, you are pursued to the utmost! Chosen. Pursued. Loved. And when you understand the great lengths God has gone through and continues to go through to win your love, it changes how you view all of life.


 

2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.’ “ (NIV

 We try to ignore weaknesses, hoping no one will notice. We live in denial, assigning blame to others when we fail. Eventually, we attempt to bury our weaknesses only to find them resurrecting themselves when we least expect it. A powerful life embraces pain, brokenness and weakness and understands that perfection is for Heaven, not Earth. The words of Paul are profound, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27 NIV).

When we are honest about our weaknesses, we are conceding the fact that only God can accomplish anything good in or through us. God’s power is instantly recognizable in obvious weakness. God has always allowed man’s weakness to validate the immeasurable need of His redemption and His sufficiency in our lives. He can and will use us if we allow Him to do so – not despite our weaknesses – but through our weaknesses. We are not the message – just the messenger. Our weaknesses are not excuses to escape God’s plan but divinely appointed opportunities for that plan to work.

Noah was a drunk.
Abraham was too old.
Isaac was a daydreamer.
Jacob was a liar.
Leah was ugly.
Joseph was abused.
Moses had a stuttering problem.
Gideon was afraid.
Sampson had long hair and was a womanizer.
Rahab was a prostitute.
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young.
David had an affair and was a murderer.
Elijah was suicidal.
Isaiah preached naked.
Jonah ran from God.
Naomi was a widow.
Job went bankrupt.
John the Baptist ate bugs.
Peter denied Christ.
The Disciples fell asleep while praying.
Martha worried about everything.
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once.
Zaccheus was too small.
Paul was too religious and Lazarus was dead!

(Author unknown)

More important than where you have been or even where you are, is where you are headed. Don’t wait until you have it all figured out. That won’t happen, this side of Heaven. Don’t wait until you think you are good enough. You never will be. Step up to the plate and be the imperfect you; allowing God’s perfection to shine through each and every weakness. Do not listen to the doubts and lies of Satan. His goal is to render you helpless and defeated, no longer a threat to him or his kingdom. I recently told a friend, “I want to get to the place in my walk with God, that when my feet hit the floor each morning, the devil says, “Oh, no! She’s awake!” I know I have a long way to go, but join me in the choice to embrace weakness and pain, allowing God’s strength and restoration to shine through each broken place.

PURSUIT OF THE HUMAN HEART

The entire Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 22:21 is a record of God’s passionate pursuit of the human heart. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, a string of kings, both good and bad, intermingled with prophets wooing and warning God’s people. We end the last chapter of the Old Testament with silence. And then 400 years later, God breaks the holy hush with the cry of a babe in a manger as the story picks back up in Bethlehem.
From God’s first question, “Where are you?” until Jesus’ final words, “It is finished,” we see God drawing mankind with cords of kindness that sometimes appear anything but kind—drawing people back to Himself with ties of love (Hosea 11:4). We’ve wiggled and wrangled trying to break free of those cords, but He continues to lasso us with love and draw us in again.
Passionate pursuit. He’s pulled out all the stops to woo and win your heart.
Be on the lookout today. God is pursuing you. Sending you love notes in the sky. Serenading you in the song of a bird. Salting your thirst to know him more. This email is simply one of the many ways he’s pursuing you today.

Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Cast up a highway for Him who rides through the deserts; whose name is the Lord, and exult before Him (Psalm 68:4).

I love the story of the woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. "Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today. She did and she had a wonderful day. The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "Hmm," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today." She did and she had a great day. The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. "Well," she said, "today I'm going to wear my hair in a ponytail." So she did and she had a fun day. The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "Yes!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!" Now that’s what I call having a good attitude.
Attitude can transform anything and everything – thoughts, habits, and perspectives. We can literally change our lives by changing the way we think. In Isaiah 26:3 (NLT), we find the promise, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you.” A mind filled with thoughts fixed on God will produce a heart filled with praise – and girlfriend, praise is a powerful tool in our spiritual arsenal. Praise brings healing to our spirit. When we honestly express our trust in God, then choose to give thanks, healing begins. Praise provides a highway upon which the Father conveys deliverance and blessing. Praise invites God to take up residence in the midst of our messy lives and becomes a free-flowing conduit of God’s very presence and power at work in us. God funnels infinite blessings into a life that praises Him. Stress and anxiety fade as peace floods the heart that is filled with praise.
Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Cast up a highway for Him who rides through the deserts. (Psalm 68:4, ICB)

But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3, NKJV)
Don’t miss the life changing truth that we can enthrone God in every situation of our lives by praising Him. Praise converts our everyday surroundings into His dwelling place. It is from that throne of praise that God dispenses victory. Praise tunes us into His sovereignty and allows us to experience the reality and power of His presence.
Praise strengthens our prayer life. Prayer is not only a remarkable privilege that we often fail to recognize or understand, it is also part of our worship to God. There is the asking side of prayer when we seek forgiveness, lay needs before God and intercede on behalf of others. Then there is the appreciating side of prayer when we offer praise and thanksgiving to God for who He is and what He has done. Our relationship with God is strengthened through prayer and praise. Now here is my favorite truth about praise. Are you ready? Praise devastates Satan and his forces. Yes! I love it! In fact, Psalm 20:5 (NIV) promises, “We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.” Satan is well aware of just how powerful praise is and I suspect he absolutely hates it … which absolutely delights me! I can almost sense his fury when I choose to praise God instead of questioning Him. He hates it when I walk by faith, setting aside feelings and emotions while focusing on God’s Word and His faithfulness in my life.
No matter where you are or what you are facing, God is with you. Choose to praise Him.