Amanda looked puzzled. “How do you know that God has a plan for your life,” she asked. She’d left her kitchen work to sit with them to listen to Cody’s words.
“Yes,” added Amy, “Life seems so random at times. It would be so comforting to know there was a plan for me to follow!”
“There’s lots of indications of God’s plans for individuals all through the whole Bible. God actually has two levels of plans.
“He has His overall plan that He first revealed in the Garden of Eden, promising the coming of a Savior right after Adam sinned.
This plan included His bringing all who were willing into His Kingdom, and the decision to eventually end time, to confine all evil to the lake of fire and to create the New Heaven and New Earth where there will be no sin. These will come to pass no matter what men may do.
“He also has an individual plan for each person. We can surrender our plans and join Him in His plan for us, or we can rebel against His plans and do our own thing.
“An example of rebellion is in Luke 7:30, ‘But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves [believing in Jesus], because they had not been baptized by John.’ They were able to refuse God’s plan, unfortunately for them.
“The most important part of God’s plan for each of us is to be born again, which means we accept the forgiveness Jesus bought for us in His death and resurrection. And surrender to Him as our King.
“Then we are cleansed, forgiven, adopted into God’s family, welcomed into His Kingdom, equipped and assigned to special service for Him.
“But sadly, not everyone will accept Christ’s offer for eternal life and will miss the positive plan He has for them.”
Cody paused to see if they were following this line of truth with him. All of them were listening intently.
“Hebrews 12:1 and 2 present the same truth in another way. It says, ‘And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.’
“The Lord lays out a race for us each day. It may have twists and turns, steep hills and rugged valleys, but God has prepared the way, and gives us all the grace we need to finish the day’s race.
“Plus, Jesus is running with us. We must look to him throughout the day, for He is the Giver and the Developer of our faith. It is in the difficulties of the race where our faith grows.”
“So,” said Amy, “we can trust God to carry us through each day.”
“That’s right,” said Cody, “As long as we run with Him in the race He’s prepared for us. And in this race, every event, no matter how painful, is allowed by God to develop fruit in our lives.
“Well, enough for one morning. I’m off to check on the cattle.” Cody said as he rose, put on his hat, gave Amy a wink and went to the barn.
Picture: running the daily race with Jesus