The next step to God’s plan for your life.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

God has a plan for your life. We know through the prophet of Jeremiah that God has a plan for each and every one of us. He has good works set aside for us to do. These have been ordained for us since before we were born. His plan is hope and prosperity throughout our future. Scripture reminds us that the pathway of the righteous is like the dawning of the sun unto the high point of the day at midday. God’s plan for our life is ever-increasing.

We can’t mistake this to mean that God’s plan will be easy. We can’t be fooled into thinking that when things are nice and easy that we are in the center of God’s will or that when things are tough, we have gone astray. Within this good, pleasing, and perfect will God has for us are trials and tribulations. Jesus promised us this much. They will happen all the way until we go Home or Jesus comes back.

The question is how do we find God’s will for our life. That is the entire premise of my first book: Prepare for Greater Things. It is not something easy to discover, but God teaches us principles to live by that help us find our next step.

The passage today is one of those steps. If you want to find God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will for your life; if you want to flourish in the here and now, if you want to have peace beyond comprehension, joy indescribable, and love that endures, you must…choose to be joyful in all circumstances. You must learn to walk in the communion of the Spirit each day. You must have a thankful spirit all the time.

Without these, your next step toward God’s will for your life will be a misstep in the wrong direction. Of course, the hard part is that these are essential to finding God’s plan even with all the trials and tribulations. Anyone can be joyful when everything is good, but to keep moving toward God’s plan, we must do these things when it is hard.

Biblically, we must take captive our thoughts and reframe them from an eternal perspective realizing that at times, the Lord will know what troubles we need to face to press us into greater love, greater faith, and greater obedience as the next step. This reframing can help us rejoice, pray, and be thankful.

Prayer: Lord, help me reframe my moment for joy, communion, and gratefulness that I might find Your will for my life. Amen.

Become a partner and get my books for free