Wednesday, April 20, 2011

(in)courage: Life Verse, Anyone?

I'm writing over at (in)courage today, and would love for you to hop on over to read the post and let me know what you think.

Here's a snippet pulled from the middle to give you a "taste" of what it's about:

::

God has an intention for me. My life here is not random.

Soak that in a minute. You aren't here just to get through life. You're not even here to succeed with your plans in life. No… you're here to fulfill what He has intended for you.

It changes things, doesn't it?

I find myself looking at every moment and opportunity differently. Life isn't about what I am in the mood for or what can fit into my day. Life is about being open to what He may need from me and what He has intended for me to notice. I'm here to keep my eyes and heart open enough to be aware of the moments in which He has intended for me to act.

To read the post in it's entirety, click here: Life Verse, Anyone?

::

EDITED to include entire post:

I had never heard of a life verse before.

I know … {shock} … {gasp} … but even though my friends and I all grew up in Christian households, no one I knew had ever heard of the concept either. And then I joined the blogging world and people all talked about their life verses. How some had been given one by their parents, how others chose them for their baptisms or confirmations, how some felt it had been spoken to them in some way.

Nothing had been speaking to me.

When my nurse was at my house one day, noticed a canvas I had made and said, “Hey, that’s my life verse!” … I thought I officially should take this thing seriously.

I still hadn’t found an actual life verse, but I did find a little treasure on the DaySpring site that I splurged on simply because it spoke to me like I assumed a life verse should:

“Become all that God intended you to be.
Love Him. Love People. Love the life you’ve been given.”

It sits by my bed so I see it all day – the words I want to live by. And while I could write volumes about each little part of each sentence, the word that continuously jumps out at me is “intended.”

God has an intention for me. My life here is not random.

Soak that in a minute. You aren’t here just to get through life. You’re not even here to succeed with your plans in life. No… you’re here to fulfill what He has intended for you.

It changes things, doesn’t it?

I find myself looking at every moment and opportunity differently. Life isn’t about what I am in the mood for or what can fit into my day. Life is about being open to what He may need from me and what He has intended for me to notice. I’m here to keep my eyes and heart open enough to be aware of the moments in which He has intended for me to act.

Do you know what else it made me realize? That if He has intentions for my life, and has seen all that has happened and will happen, then I don’t have to worry about how I’ll make it through.

Because if I am still on this earth, it means He has intended for me to do something more. If I didn’t have something more to do, He would reward me by taking me home to Him.

Which means He already knows I can make it through another day of this pain and illness. It means He already knows my family will survive the loss of my Dad. It means He already knows I will survive whatever crosses my path today because He has intended for me to fulfill His purpose yet tomorrow.

I am a survivor. Not because I am strong or willful or unique. I am a survivor because God has intentions for me, and as long as I am here on this earth I have a job left to do. He saw that I would be sick, He saw that I would be devastated, He saw that I would feel weak, but He put me in this life because He also saw I would fulfill what He intended.

All I have to do is remember that this life isn’t about me… it’s about His intentions for me. If I trust Him with all of it, past – present - future, then He will make sure I am in the right position to fulfill all He intended.

Oh, and according to the life verse my friend helped me choose, I plan on doing it with joy.

“I will take joy.” {Habakkuk 3:18}

Do you all have a life verse? I’d love to hear it.

blog comments powered by Disqus