If you are in a crisis today and God is bringing you through that crisis, you may discover one of these days that God has used this time of stress and uncertainty to bring you to a new level of maturity. In some cases, a period of crisis may be the best gift He could give you. A gift? Yes. But what I mean is that in that hour of transition, God was giving you a better and bolder vision so that you could sort out your priorities. He was using stress to turn your attention back to the things that matter most in your life.
As we discern what God wants for each of us, and what His priorities are for our lives, sometimes it is a fairly easy process. We simply listen and learn. But that is not always the case. Sometimes we can only get to the point where God is taking us through trial and error. We may miss the target on occasion. But if we continue faithfully through that time of transition, God will make His will known.
Crisis is often a way for us to get back on track with God’s vision. Abram received God’s promise that wherever he went he would be blessed. That must have been difficult for Abram to understand at first. God told him that the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. But Abram, to his credit, did not allow the surprising nature of what God was saying to keep him from fulfilling the command he was given. That blessing made Abram a new creation. But I believe God also wants to bless your life, to make you a new creation in Christ and to prepare you to experience success in your life. This is the God who knows everything about you: strengths, weaknesses and limitations. Even though we know all of this, He wants to call forth the champion in you. He is the one who understands how to change our character and transform our world.
He loves you despite your mistakes, and He has a plan for you even in the midst of unimaginable change and discomfort. As long as you continue moving along the pathway toward His goals, God promises to erase your blunders. Your sins are covered by the blood of Christ, who has declared you to be a child of the King. In the inspiring little book You Were Born For This, Bruce Wilkinson says, “You are born to do God’s work by God’s help.” He writes that we are born to a life of predictable miracles. No matter what you do in life or how satisfied you may be with the situation you are currently in, you were born to do God’s work by God’s help. He has created you for a time such as this.
There is a special role in God’s plan that only you can fill; there are answers that only you can give. No matter where you are in your life today, and no matter where you will be in a month, a year or a decade from now, I want you to know that you have a purpose and a calling from God. He created you for that purpose. Your task now is to draw closer to Him, to seek His will through the Word and to open your eyes to the vision He has for you, to make you the man or woman He wants you to be.
Bishop Harry Jackson appears on LIFE TODAY this Monday. Excerpted from You Were Born For More by Harry R. Jackson, Jr. © 2013 by Harry R. Jackson, Jr. Published by Chosen Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used with permission.
