We’re told from a very early age that we can be whatever we want to be, we can have whatever we want to have, and we can do whatever we want to do. It’s very true that we have unlimited potential through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and through him, our possibilities are endless. Our ability to do great things is multiplied exponentially when we place our faith in God, but we must never forget that our lives are not our own. 1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) tells us, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” Humbling ourselves under the authority of God’s Word means that we honor Him with our choices and decisions, because who we are, what we can have, and what we can do is only possible because of His grace.
Ephesians 5:1(NLT) tells us, “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.” He also tells us in1Peter 1:16(NLT), “You must be holy because I am holy.” Our Heavenly Father tells us to imitate His nature and character and to be holy like Him, because we are His children, and He created us in His likeness; we were fashioned to be like Him. In His infinite mercy and brilliance, God doesn’t force us to be like Him. He’s given us free-will, and we get to choose who we will model, but we should know with absolute certainty that imitating God is the greatest gift and treasure we can achieve in life.
Our Heavenly Father doesn’t lie, He doesn’t steal, and He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t want us to do those things either, but sometimes we choose to go against Him. We make mistakes all the time, but through His overwhelming grace, our Heavenly Father has given us the extraordinary honor and privilege to learn about Him. He’s given us this earth experience to become who He has created us to be, and we should spend every waking hour dedicated to that purpose.
Society wants us to believe that we can be and do anything, and that we can have it all. This just isn’t true. God tells us in Acts 17:26-28 that from one man, Adam, He created nations throughout the earth. He determined when those nations would rise and fall, and He alone has established the boundaries of every individual. He established the time and place of our births, and His purpose for doing all this is so that we will seek Him. He alone is worthy to be sought. He’s glorious, holy, righteous, brilliant, majestic, all-knowing, and all-powerful. No one in all eternity compares to our God. To not know Him and the purpose for which we are called is to miss the richness of this life experience.
There are many individuals walking around with sadness and confusion because they don’t know who they are, but as children of the Most High God, we should never have that problem. We’re His sons and daughters, and we’re the brothers and sisters of Christ. God created us so that we could have a relationship with Him through Christ, and He wants us to live abundantly by following the example His loving and powerful Son left us.
Most of us spend an enormous amount of time trying to fit square pegs into round holes. We attempt to force the pieces to come together, and we’re almost always disappointed with the results when we do this. We partner with people in relationships that our Father didn’t ordain to be in our lives. We choose the wrong career, and we don’t pursue the very thing we were put on this earth to achieve. Because we’ve missed God’s purpose, we walk around feeling out of place a lot of the time, like we’re watching someone else live our lives. That’s not what God wants for us.
In Jeremiah 29:11(NLT), God told His people living during Old Testament times, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” This is true for us living today as well. God knows the plans He has for our lives, and they are good plans. He tells us in Romans 8:28-29(NLT), “28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
Nothing about us is random. Long before we entered our mother’s wombs, God knew us, and He had a plan for our individual lives. We can take comfort in the reality that when we love Him and pursue His purpose for our lives, He will cause all things to workng together for our good. We can’t be anything we want to be. We can’t do anything we want to do, and we can’t have everything. If we’re in Christ, we should only want to be, do, and have what God has ordained and planned for our lives. We should have faith, be patient with the Lord, and follow His guidance and leadership. When this is our heart and mindset, we’ll bask in His peace and grace continually because we will please God and be satisfied by a life fulfilled in His purpose. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“We Can’t Have It All”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.