“I’ve never known what I want to do with my own life,” a young mother said to me at a church where I recently spoke about living our God-given dreams. “I want to fulfill God’s plan for my life, but I can’t figure out what it is. I don’t even know what I want to do,” she continued.
After asking her a few questions, I said to her, “We’ve just met, so I obviously don’t know you. But I’d like to offer one common reason that often applies when people can’t seem to identify the unique plan that God has for them. Is that okay?”
“Sure,” she answered.
I continued: “A very common cause for people not being able to figure out what they want to do with their life is that they’ve never given themselves the freedom to think about what they want because they’ve spent their whole life trying to please other people.”
I paused. The lady starred at me for a moment, then looked at her friend beside her with an expression of disbelief. “He hit that one on the head, didn’t he?” her friend laughed.
It didn’t take a counseling genius to figure out her problem, just forty years of talking with thousands of people like this young woman. A great number of Christians have never realized God’s wonderful plan for their lives because they’ve never allowed themselves to consider their own desires. Without doing that, believers can seldom discern God’s will for themselves.
God gives you the desires of your heart. He places them there, but if you don’t know who you are you may spend your whole life trying to fulfill other people’s plan for your life. Many a frustrated Christian has struggled with finding fulfillment in life because they’re trying to be something and do something they’ve never been called by God to do.
The meaning of grace, in part, is “divine enablement.” By His grace, God enables you to be all that He has called you to be and do all that He has called you to do. But remember this: His grace doesn’t empower you to be and do what somebody else has called you to do.
Who God has made you to be is wonderful, so you must resolve to be that person. Any effort to be somebody else is an affront to God because it suggests that you (or others) better know who you’re supposed to be and what you’re supposed to be doing. Don’t live for other people. It will wear you out.
Instead, live from the identity in Christ that your Father has given you. Then you will be free to be and do all that you were designed for. The Apostle Paul once said, “I’m not trying to be a people-pleaser! No, I’m trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ’s servant” (Galatians 1:10 New Living Translation).
If you want to find fulfillment – if you want to please God – if you want to be and do all that you were created to be and do – stop living your life trying to run the course other people set for you. Your desires count because God has placed them there.
Allow Jesus to express boldness through you. Rise up and seize the day, filled with optimistic faith in the Creator who designed your blueprint for living. Let Him live through you and watch your life be transformed!
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