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Believing God Has a Purpose for Your Life

Believing God Has a Purpose for Your Life

Last updated on: September 5, 2018 at 12:39 pm by MaryJo Petersen Castro

Believing God Has a Purpose for Your Life 2018-09-05T12:39:22-04:00 MaryJo Petersen Castro

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We’ve all heard the quips and Bible quotes that tell us, “God has a good purpose and plan for your life”, but do we really believe that? Do we really believe God has a good purpose for us when something or someone challenges us? Or, do we allow doubt and despair to creep in and take over?

Photo credit Eneida Nieves / Stocksnap

Once, while I was in a prolonged unemployment season, I had a job interview at a media broadcast station. The interview began cordially but then with an abrupt change in my interviewer’s tone and demeanor, she told me the only reason I was sitting in her office was that I had some good recommendations. She said she really didn’t want to interview me because I had a typo on my resume and reminded me there was no excuse for it. Stunned, I sat quietly as this stranger relentlessly ranted on about my misspelled word amongst other belittling jabs. I was suddenly immersed in shame and humiliation.

Eventually, I transitioned from being stunned to recognizing the work of the enemy. There was only one reason I was called in for an “interview” and it had nothing to do with a job.

The station manager was right, my bad for my one letter typo. However, she missed the bigger picture- she missed what was going on in the spiritual realm in that room. While she clasped my resume in hand, which represented the history of my literal God-given assignments, the enemy was at work in her words. The room changed. Her words summoned doubt about God’s plan for my life. Doubt opened the door to despair and a seemingly dark shadow of failure seemed to appear in my future.

I came to a crisis of belief within a matter of seconds. As soon as I got my wits together, I realized what was happening. I saw the ambush of the enemy and immediately countered it with God’s promises.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:11,12

We must come to a place in our lives where we fully BELIEVE and KNOW that God KNOWS His good plans for us. They were all perfectly sketched out long before we came into existence. God’s plans are according to His will and NOTHING or NO ONE can steal them from us, not unless we allow them to be taken.

Our enemy has waged a war against us because we are the vessels God has chosen to express Himself through to accomplish His good plans and purposes.

When we cooperate with God and allow Him to lead us to the places He is at work in the world, we will find ourselves in the middle of great workings! The bigger our God assignment, the more attention we’ll attract from the enemy. And when he attacks, he lies. We must stand and counter his lies with God’s truth and believe His word.

So, do you really believe God has a good purpose and plan for your life?

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

About MaryJo Petersen Castro

MaryJo Petersen Castro is the Communications Director at Courage For Life in Marietta, GA. As a creative leader and communicator, she has served in full-time ministry since 2003. MaryJo has worked in and produced content for live media, television, and film in the Atlanta, GA and Greenville, SC markets. You can read more about the author here.

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