The past few months I’ve been reading the same chapter of Job over and over. As I was reading recently God stopped me at Job 42:2. Where Job says to God in prayer, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
This led to a conversation about the difference between a plan and a purpose. I was raised in a church. Like most other church kids, I was taught if you didn’t do it EXACTLY how God said to do you’re doomed. (Insert whatever that means for you.) For me, that meant I totally messed up the plan God had for me and there’s no going back on that. I don’t know where actually that message came from but that’s the one I got.
In our conversation, God broke down the difference between a plan and purpose. God said, “Jasmine a plan can change but my purpose never does.” Then I thought about how I worried so much about “messing up” God’s plan for me. That the time I didn’t wake up and pray now means he can’t bless me 3 years later (pray for me).But I’m slowly realized although I missed what God wanted to tell me that morning (and the plan), he’s God and will tell me the message in his way.
Job recognized that God’s purpose for his life, no matter what his life looked like, could not be thwarted. This reminds me that no matter how I feel about God’s plans, his purposes don’t ever change. The purpose for the season, or lesson, or whatever is still the same.
God can change his plan for me no matter what. But nothing can change his purpose for my life. As I reflect before 2020 begins, I think about the plan I think God gave me for my life and realize the purpose is much bigger. I can make decisions that can alter the plan for me but I can rest that it doesn’t change his purpose for me.
God is good y’all!