Life as It Should Be

Introduction

Jeremiah 29:11–13, says “‘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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’”

Psalm 33:10–11 states, “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

And Psalm 33:4 says, “For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.” I want to make it very clear from the start that it is the Word of God (the Bible) that gives this book and anything written in it authority and credibility. I have been a pastor for eighteen years, and nothing I have ever taught has had any value or authority unless it was covered by the Word of God. It is the key to knowing God’s infinite love, grace, and forgiveness, the wonder of His gift of salvation, and His will for our lives. We must read and study the Word because everything we need to know about God’s will is revealed there. This book is a road map to help clarify how to better recognize and follow God’s will instead of creating our own path.

I tend to talk and teach ideals. Not because I live so close to them, because I don’t. But I believe they are what God desires us to strive for: “Be perfect as your Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48, paraphrased). Please do not let that verse scare you. While God desires us to be perfect, He more than us knows it is not going to happen, but He is always working to make us more like Jesus. That is why His love, grace, and forgiveness are constants in our lives. I do believe He desires us to want perfection because we know it is His desire for us. The reality, however, is that I struggle with the same things all of you do. So I know that we tend to settle for so much less than what God has in mind for us. God has a plan—a dream, if you will—for all of us. It is based on His limitless ability and desire to do great things in us, through us, and around us through His promises, for His glory and our good. It is filled with hope, vision, adventure, power, and a multitude of other great things, all ending in us becoming like Christ and living with Him eternally. He has put a plan together to accomplish this in each of our lives—a plan that, if we follow it faithfully, will lead to a life of fulfillment, joy, peace, and contentment.

But it seems to me that many of us have missed what God has planned for us. We have allowed our own personal dreams to overshadow God’s plan for us. Not that it is wrong for us to dream. In fact, God wants us to dream and to dream big. Ephesians 3:20 tells us that He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” That is the key, God wants us to dream, but He wants our dreams to be in accordance with His plan, His will, the gifts that He has given us, and what He wants to do through us. They are to be based on obedience to His Word and directed by the Holy Spirit. It is in His word that we find His will, and it is by the Holy Spirit that we are empowered to carry it out.

Side note; no extra charge: If you are anything like me, you heard very little about the Holy Spirit growing up. It is as if He was and is the unwanted stepchild of the Trinity that nobody wants to talk about. But we have to talk about Him because we cannot fully know God and live for Him without the power of the Holy Spirit. If you have given your life to God by His saving grace through Jesus Christ, then you have the Holy Spirit in you. The question is, have you given yourself to Him? He is the one who leads us, convicts us, comforts us, empowers us, gives us understanding, and leads us into all truth. His counsel is imperative if you are going to get all you can from reading this book.

Too often our dreams are influenced by our desire to be loved, accepted, secure, and comfortable, not by God’s Word. We get so caught up in our own dreams that we miss God’s plan altogether, or we have twisted and distorted His plan to fit our own purposes. Can you see that happening in your life? Have you been working so hard to make your life what you want it to be that you have become “conform[ed] to the pattern of this world” (Rom. 12:2) rather than being transformed by the Spirit of God?

I believe that we want so badly for our lives to be safe and comfortable and work the way we want that even when we see God’s plan, we only follow it if it doesn’t interfere with the life we are trying to achieve. In fact we have deceived ourselves into believing that our dreams are the same as God’s plan. We justify this all because we have prayed to God and invited Him to participate in and bless our dreams. The result is that we pursue the same things, for the same reasons, in the same ways that the world does, but since we pray about it, we assume God is with us. We have bought into the world’s deception that comfort and security come from things like money, success, popularity, and happiness. God’s view is dramatically different.

God has called us into a relationship with Him and to join His story, under His direction. He wants us to pursue the life He has called us to, a life of being in the world, not of the world—a life that will result in the world around us being transformed instead of us becoming conformed to it.

So we are involved in a struggle, our dream versus God’s plan, and too often we choose our dream and ignore His warning that “if anyone is a friend of the world, he is an enemy of God” (James 4:4, paraphrased). This is very serious stuff. So, it is time to make a choice, to take a stand, to throw away our paltry dreams and get serious about following God and His plan for our lives.

I am asking you to take a journey with me. A journey of self-examination, discovery, and growth, resulting in peace and joy. A journey that is most effectively taken when we walk hand in hand with the Holy Spirit under the umbrella of God’s love, grace, forgiveness, and power. So before we begin, I want to address two potential readers. Maybe you are someone who picked up this book because something about it grabbed your attention, but you have never really given your life to God by asking Jesus Christ to come into your heart as your Lord and Savior. I would ask that you prayerfully consider doing that before you read on. If however, you are not ready, I pray this book will bring you to a place where you recognize God’s boundless love for you, the wonder of what He has done for you through Jesus Christ, your need for Him, and the amazing plan He has for your life.

Or, maybe you gave your life to God long ago, but now the difficulties of life have caused you to become disillusioned with Him. You feel (the deception of “feelings” will be dealt with later in the book) that He has left you and that you are no longer in fellowship with Him. I would ask that before you continue you spend time in prayer asking God to renew in you His promise that He will “never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31:6) and to once again overwhelm you with His love, and give you a new awareness of the Holy Spirit in you.

Having done that, let’s begin our journey.