According to various sources, the average adult makes an estimated 35,000 decisions a day. We routinely decide if we hit the snooze button in the morning, if we get up, if we brush our teeth, if we eat breakfast, if we put our left shoe on first, and so forth. Thousands of choices made, most of which on autopilot without much thought. Then there are the “life altering” decisions – what college to attend, what major to declare, what job to take, where to move, who to marry and the list goes on. If you’re anything like me, this is when you pull out the trusty pro/con lists, you research, and you start pestering the wisest people around you with the all knowing question “what would you do?”, even though the decision is ultimately up to you. 

Making decisions like this can be stressful, especially as someone who has repeatedly been taught we are supposed to follow God’s plan. I mean after all, Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Amen, God has a plan for us. However, it seems that society misuses this verse in a way that takes itself out of the equation. As if we have not been granted free will and that whatever happens in life must be part of God’s plan. But that’s not how it works, especially considering we live in a sin-ridden world. 

It’s so easy to get bogged down in the idea of “God’s plan” for us, it’s almost daunting to think about. Around this time last year, my mind was spinning trying to figure out what “the plan” was. As a recent college graduate, I was trying to figure out where God wanted me to go. What if I moved to the wrong city and didn’t meet the love of my life? What if I accepted the wrong job and then ended up quitting after a year? What if I stayed home and didn’t have some life changing experience that I might need down the road? All of these questions were asked in an attempt to figure out what God wanted me to do, like He wanted me to guess! There was this overwhelming fear of choosing wrong and messing up “the plan”. 

The flaw with this mindset is it implies there is one “right” path for each person to pursue God in this life and you can mess it up by simply choosing wrong. Let me stop to clarify by saying sin is wrong, and you can’t pursue God through sin. But the life choices God provides us are simply gifts of various opportunities. His plan for each of us is not a ten step process, where if you miss one, the whole thing goes out the window. His plan is found in John 14:1-6: 

1“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

God’s plan is for us to be united together with Him in Heaven, which can only be done through Jesus. Simply put, God can use you, anywhere, anytime if you are living a Christian life as explained in scripture. The life decisions society seems to emphasize are actually trivial in the

grand scheme of things. You can fulfill God’s plan by striving to live in a godly manner with the ultimate goal of going to Heaven and taking others with you. 

So the first part of the equation is removing the limits we place on God’s plan. The second part is combining our own willingness with some follow through. I think we are guilty of allowing ourselves to believe we only have one moment of true destiny and we kind of just wait for it to happen. We read of individuals’ life highlights in scripture- Noah, Ruth, Esther, Jonah, Pilate, even Judas. But we must acknowledge there was more to each of their lives. We cannot live as if our salvation hinges on one earthly moment of destiny. Or act as if once we are baptized we are set for life. God’s plan involves continuous action on our part. We have a daily decision to make to serve God or not – regardless of age, location, career field, depth of knowledge, etc.. 

It’s easy to make excuses for our lack of service and if we are honest, we have all done it. I think the most commonly used one is inadequacy, to the point most people feel inadequate to discuss the Bible. However, isn’t it funny how God only ever used inadequate people throughout scripture? 

– Abraham was old; 

– Moses had a speech problem; 

– Rahab was a prostitute; 

– Jonah ran from God; 

– Zacchaeus was greedy; 

– Peter denied God; 

– Saul was a murderer. 

News Flash: all of humanity has and will ever be inadequate and yet God can use us! So it’s really a question of whether we allow ourselves to be usable. Do we wait for opportunities to serve God? Or do we daily seek out these opportunities? The fact that we live in a fallen world means there are service opportunities everywhere, not just in foreign countries. God’s plan is for us to actively pursue any opportunity to spread the Gospel. Jesus instructs us of this in Mark 16:15-16, “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”. 

We should feel awesome by knowing we serve the all-knowing, all-powerful God. I encourage you to read Romans 8, where Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome, encouraging them through dark times that were coming from Nero’s persecution. He explains there is ultimately no condemnation for Christians because our inheritance as His children is Heavenly and any suffering we endure on earth is incomparable to His glory we will experience in Heaven. Verse 31 says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”. Meaning we already have the privilege of knowing the end of our story: God wins! And if we live for Him, we will win, too! 

God’s plan involves our action. We cannot let fear or laziness hold us back from living boldly for Him. There is no excuse that will cover us, especially considering we know how it ends. God is always at work and can use us in any phase of life, at any knowledge base. He can use us anywhere, anytime, but we have to put in work, too. If you are holding back because you think you might mess up God’s plan, you are giving yourself too much credit. God’s plan for us is simple, we are the ones who overcomplicate it. I heard a quote on a podcast that said “pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you”. Take comfort in knowing we can’t mess up His plan if we are actively pursuing Him. So are you pursuing Him? God is willing and able to use you for His glory. Are you putting in the work? Of your 35,000 choices to make today, is choosing to serve God one of them?

 

About the author: Sarah Eddleman is a member of the Germantown congregation outside of Memphis,
Tennessee. She is a Freed-Hardeman University alum, working as an associate auditor in
pursuit of her CPA license. Sarah has always been involved within her church family, through
teaching classes, helping with VBS, and her favorite annual event- church camp! She loves to
travel and has already visited 18 other countries!