This is the blog post you need to read. Today. Read it now if you can. Or save it for later when you get a chance if you don’t have time. Grab a cuppa, get comfortable and sit here for a little while. You know when things happen at the right time? This is that… a word spoken in season.
The reason I wanted to share this particular blog post this week, is because I was given an opportunity to speak to some young ladies at our church youth group.
I was given free reign as to what to talk about for that hour, and so I decided on something that I am passionate about.
You guessed it – PURPOSE.
If you’re waiting for your purpose, or your ‘calling’ to fall down from heaven and land neatly into your hands… 📢 “It has arrived!”
In fact, it was already here.
He has great plans for you
“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.”
Jeremiah 29:11
I love how all the different parts of the bible were written to a person (or people), and somehow those words travel across culture and through time, to still speak with relevance and power to us today. This verse speaks to your life, and the creator of it knows every single day of your life that is yet to come.
If you know me well, you may know that someone with my personality type, needs to be achieving. I love to be moving forward and making plans. I love to feel that I am growing.
This verse has spoken to me over the years, the many times I’ve read it, and it always excited me.
But for so many years I lived in frustration, because I was waiting for my purpose to arrive. I’d read this verse time after time, and thought that maybe it was just taking a while.
Except it didn’t arrive, and it didn’t again… then it didn’t arrive some more.
These were the years in my 20’s, when I got married and we had begun our family. There was a need in me that was fulfilled with them, but still there was an open hole in my life, where something ‘more’ was missing.
I prayed so many times over the years, because I was so sure that my purpose was something big, and I would know it when it arrived, because I would definitely see it coming.
I didn’t feel that my purpose was fulfilled in my roles as just a wife and mother.
Maybe you can relate. That the things and opportunities you have in your life are great, but perhaps you still feel that there should be something more to fill that place in your heart.
It was in this particular season, when I finally discovered my big purpose. But to share it properly I need to tell you the story of how my epiphany came about.
We had moved from Sydney to Alice Springs in Central Australia, it was a big change. We had very much lived in a Christian bubble, and this new town was a shock to the system. What was an even bigger shock, was starting a job waitressing (for the first time ever) in my late 20’s.
I knew that this was a door that the Lord had opened for me, but I didn’t feel like I had anything in common with the staff, and it was a very opposite feel to the Christian bubble I’d left behind. I wanted to quit, but I felt that God was saying no.
Every other week, I’d pray and ask Him if I could leave and the answer was the same. So after about 5 months of this (I know, right?) I finally said to God, that if He wanted to me to be there, he needed to tell me why and what the purpose was.
So He did.
The Lord showed me He wanted me to love the people I worked with and the customers, and to be a light in that place. Something within me dramatically shifted over that week.
I saw the purpose in what I was doing. I saw the bigger picture of going into work for every shift. My heart attitude changed, my relationships with those I worked with grew, and I felt like I was making a difference.
That workplace became my mission field, I went in knowing that apart from the actual waitressing, I had a higher purpose.
What it took me so long to realise was, that all my life – wherever I was, there was a purpose for me. It was as though I suddenly had a higher view of my life. I looked beyond the natural and saw there was a greater purpose to the job I did really well. Which was to love people and to be a light in that place.
I worked that job for all the years we lived in Alice Springs, and I even went back a few times to help manage when the owners were away. That job blessed me as much as I was able to bless them.
You are ready to hear your purpose
You are in your purpose, right now and right where you are.
If you don’t know what you purpose is, in the place you are right now, ask the Lord to show you.
Remember the verse in Jeremiah? He has plans for your life, He knows where you are and where you will be. He can use wherever you are in life to do the good work in and through you, right now.
He uses those things he has created in you
“For you created my inmost being;
Psalm 139:13-16
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. 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. Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”
When you were being created and formed in secret, hidden away from the sight of the world, the Lord wasn’t just knitting your physical body together. He was creating within you those gifts and talents, those hope and dreams that he would bring out of you as you grew.
He gave you things that you are naturally good at, drawn to, or passionate about.
He works all things together
“We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28
When I was with the young ladies I mentioned earlier, we discussed the verse in Jeremiah 29:11, and talked about what stood out to us. One theme that came out, was that if God has plans for us, a hope and a future, that means when hard times come, we can trust it will all be ok.
I love this verse in Romans, how it says, PROMISES, that God works all things together for the good of his people.
Your story is powerful.
“Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.”
Ephesians 2:10
Your everyday life, is the way you fulfil the purpose that God has for you. The way you live your life as a follower of Him.
We know that every good story has a monster, and a hero, it has brave characters who overcome against all odd. And we love it when a good story has a great ending. A good story can leave us feeling hopeful and restored.
There are stories in your life when you ventured through the darkest times, where you met with people who encouraged you on the journey, and saw the goodness of God through it all.
The stories of your life also have a purpose. Tell your stories, you will know when it’s the right time, there will be someone who really needs to hear it.
God’s plans are better than ours
“Many plans are in a person’s mind,
Proverbs 19:21
but the Lord’s purpose will succeed.”
Sometimes your plan is God’s plan, when you’re walking closely with Him and seeking his voice on the direction you go. But other times you want what you want, and you go your own way.
I have had those moments in life, and they didn’t really work out that well. But the absolutely wonderful thing about how the Lord weaves the tapestry of your life, is that He threads those wrong paths in and makes them beautiful. He grows and teaches you in your straying and uses those experiences to give you wisdom and to help others.
His plans are forever
“But the Lord’s plan stands forever;
Psalms 33:11
what he intends to do lasts from one generation to the next.”
The plans and purposes the Lord has for his people, are woven into the cosmic tapestry, that contains all of time and existence. We can’t know the impact our life will have on the world we live in, or the one generations from now.
What you can be sure of, is that the Lord has great things planned for you. He will open doors of opportunities, and He will close some that at the time, cause you pain. He sees the whole picture of your life, and knows what He is doing… He is God after all.
So friend, you can put all your hope and trust in the Lord, who has incredible things for you. He has a higher plan for you, that overlays the ordinary life you think you live.
He lovingly weaves the story of your life, he makes the dark beautiful and full of purpose in the end.
There will be things that we won’t understand this side of heaven, but we will when we meet Him there.
And because you know I love a recap:
- God has great plans for you, He promises it in Jeremiah 29:11
- You have purpose right where you are, now. Ask the Lord what that is.
- The things He has created in you serve that purpose. Psalms 139:13-16
- The Lord works all things together for your good. Romans 8:28
- Your story is powerful, and you never know who needs to hear it. Ephesians 2:10
- God’s plans are better than ours. Proverbs 19:21
- God’s plans are forever, and your purpose is threaded into the cosmic tapestry. Psalms 33:11
Friend, God has got so much for you. Trust the paths He leads you to, and the doors He opens or closes. If we know that He has planned to give us a future and a hope, then we can stop worrying about the details and rest in His plan for our life.
If you know someone who needs to hear this today, please share it with them. Also share this on your social accounts, so it can find those who need this encouragement.
As always, I am here cheering you on in all the amazing ways you a growing. Championing your goals and dreams, as you take each brave step towards them.
You can find all the places I hang out online here.
Sending you love friend,
Carrie xxx
Carrie Baker - The Growth Collective 
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