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The Surprising Way to Discover God’s Plan for You

We’ve all heard the encouraging promise that “God has a great plan for your life.”  But what quickly grows discouraging is trying to discern what His plan is! While it’s true that God sometimes uncovers His plans in a dramatic way, such as through a vision or a dream, more often than not, God’s plans for each of us are discovered through the lessons of everyday life.

Step Out to Find Out

Since the time I was 18 years old, I knew that God called me to ministry, but I had no concept about the shape it would take. Thankfully, in this time, I learned a great truth: “You can’t move a parked car.” What this means is that in order for something to be steered, it has to be in motion.

As I explore in my series, Discovering God’s Plan for You, it was when I stepped out to try various ministries that I began to recognize God’s purposes for me. For instance, early in my college years, I attempted to teach an elementary Sunday school. I thought that because my mom operated a daycare from our house that children’s ministry might come naturally. But when, week after week, the kids continued running around, flipping the lights on and off and doing everything but the lesson, I murmured, “This isn’t for me!”

Later I tried my hand at street evangelism. I took part in a retreat aimed to launch people into open-air preaching and street witnessing. Yet in the several-day intensive, I never got comfortable with it and even struggled with not wanting to talk to anybody! In fact, I left that experience feeling very defeated, wondering if I didn’t love God as much as the others. “Why am I not as passionate about this as others?” I asked the Lord. “Is it because I don’t love you as much as they do?”

As God does, He comforted me in His matter-of-fact manner. “It’s true that they are better at that than you are, but you’re better at other things than they are,” God instructed. “It’s not about someone loving Me more than another; it’s just part of being My Body. I’ve given different gifts and passions to different people. It’s OK to be different!” Maybe you need to reread that and take it as a word for you, too.

God Directs Your Steps

Eventually, I learned that these trial experiences were all part of God’s promise to “direct the steps of the godly” (see Psalm 37:23). In other words, as I stepped out to try things, I discovered what I wasn’t called to do, while God subsequently steered me into the passion for the ministry I enjoy today.

What passion has God infused in you? Preaching to the unsaved? Teaching those in the church? Business? Government? Music? Family? Don’t sit around and do nothing—try something in the direction of your passion! As you go, trust that God is with you, guiding and directing your steps. Even if you do make a mistake, He’ll get you back on track.