Identity – Part 2: God’s Plan for You Is Awesome
So now that we’ve established that what God says about who you are really is for you, what exactly does He say about your identity?
Some of you may have heard that God is scary, cruel, indifferent, or angry. But He wrote the Bible, and here are some of the things He says about your purpose and your future.
Who You Are
Going back to Genesis 1:26, God says:
Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.
Two things stand out to me from this verse:
To Be Like Us
God didn’t make you to be His slave, to take out His trash, wash His dirty laundry, or mow His lawn. He didn’t make you so He could watch you struggle to eke out a living on the earth and feel all smug because He’s God and you aren’t.
No. He made you to be like Him.
One of your most important purposes in life is to be like God.
Notice what I’m not saying here.
I’m not saying that you are God.
I’m not saying we should become arrogant and act like we don’t need God. (After all, that’s how we got into this mess in the first place, isn’t it?) God gave us a perfect example of how to be like Him without becoming an arrogant jerk, and that example is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the most humble Man you’ll ever meet.
What I am saying:
God wants to share His infinite wealth with you so you never have to worry about how your needs will be provided for.
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
God made you to be His child and His heir.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
To Reign
Did you read Romans 8:15-17? Notice that Paul, who wrote this letter (under the inspiration of God), said:
In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.
We are called to be humble, like God, but we will share in His glory. In Romans 8:30 Paul says that God gave His people His glory.
And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
In 2 Timothy 2:12, Paul says we will reign with Jesus if we endure hardship (which is inevitable at some point during life, right?).
If you’re up for reading another great article related to this, check out “Reigning in Life” by Kenneth E. Hagin.
Your Future
In Jeremiah 29:11, God tells Jeremiah:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
The same verse in the New International Version says:
“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.”
Notice these two important things:
God Knows
God knows your future. Why? How? Because they are His plans. You are not an accident. You are not a mistake. God designed you carefully and perfectly so that you would be the best-equipped person on the planet to fulfill your destiny. You hear that? Your destiny. It’s something only you can do, and something God designed you to do perfectly.
God has already spoken your destiny into the future, and He made this promise in Jeremiah 1:12:
“…I am watching, and I will certainly carry out all my plans.”
You are His masterpiece, and even now His Son Jesus is preparing you to do unfathomably amazing things. Ephesians 2:10 says:
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
The New International Version says we were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Not only does God know what He wants you to do, but He prepared those things just for you, in advance, orchestrating every aspect of the universe so that at exactly the right time you can step into your destiny and accomplish them.
And don’t worry about if you’ll like or agree with those plans or not, because…
His Plans Are Good
Look at the promises He makes in Jeremiah 29:11:
- plans for good - not for disaster (NLT)
- to prosper you - not to harm you (NIV)
Notice that the New International Version says “to prosper you.” God didn’t make these plans to benefit Himself. He’s not enlisting you only to help others when there’s no benefit to you. His plans are good and they will prosper you.
And what are the purposes of these plans? Why did He make them in the first place?
To give you two things you might not otherwise have had: hope and a future.
You were created to be like God. He gave you His DNA. He formed you tenderly, with great care and compassion, by hand, in your mother’s womb. From before the world began He already knew exactly what He wanted you to do and He gets really excited when He thinks about it. He’s a good Father, and He can’t wait to see you step into your destiny. Every little step you take towards what you were created to do makes Him proud and fills Him with joy.
But since you were handmade by God with a specific destiny, every moment that you’re not walking in that destiny will leave you feeling dissatisfied. If you’re not living the way you were designed to live, it exerts a drain on you - mentally, physically, and spiritually, and as a result you might grow weary and disillusioned or feel like you’re wandering through life aimlessly.
But you don’t have to be hopeless, and you don’t have to worry about what might happen in the future or if you play a part in it, because you have a hope and a future, and God has promised to watch over it.