Are you living God’s plan for your life?

Wondering if God really has plans for you? The Bible says He does, but what does that really even mean? Life is full of noise and it’s difficult to discern God’s voice through everything going on. By sharing with you the events that have recently taken place in my life, I hope to help you hear God and decipher His plan for your own future.

If you’ve been a lifelong Christian, you may be wondering what God’s plan is for your life. People who’ve recently found Jesus, or who have had a spiritual awakening later in life have felt His powerful presence divert the path they were on. It was easy to see the direction change in their life. But what happens when you’ve been brought up in the faith and nothing seemingly significant has happened? Does God just not have any grand, life-altering plans for you because you’re already headed the right way?

This was my question. And the answer I have recently found is: likely not.

Even though you’re already traveling in the right direction, you sill have a map to follow.

Just because you don’t need to make a U-turn doesn’t mean you ignore the directions. Look for God along the way. Ask of His counsel. Let Him know you will drive anywhere He wants you to go. And with that, I’ll segway into my story.

How to Listen and Follow God’s Plan For Your Life 

1. Be BOLD
2. Open Your Eyes to See God Already at Work
3. Pray Daily With Intention
4. Have Quiet Time Often
5. Take Note of Ideas That Continue to Arise
6. Listen To Your Gut

The Story

God was at work – big time. But throughout the day-to-day, it certainly didn’t seem like anything big. That’s the reason why I want to share this with you.

Putting all the small puzzle pieces together each day doesn’t feel significant… until it is.

That is, until the puzzle begins to look like the picture on the front of the box. And that’s where I am at this moment. I am beginning to take the small clusters of put together pieces and place them into the bigger picture. Suddenly, the empty frame is filling quickly and it’s looking like the box that I’ve been staring at for years.

The Change

When my first child was born, I temporarily stopped working as a dietitian in the acute care rehab setting. I stayed home to take care of my baby girl and found that transition exceedingly difficult to manage. Changing from a respected person in the work world to a stay-at-home mom really challenged me.

I longed for a creativity outlet so, began this blog! At that time, it only contained food and nutrition articles, after all, I was a Dietitian – makes sense! But each time I sat down to write, all that was in my head were thoughts of prayer, relationships, God and Spiritual health. I was conflicted, because any blog expert will tell you to keep your niche small, so to add a Spiritual section would to 100% go against good blogging advice.

I will tell you, people in my life actively advised against me expanding it. But my gut feeling wouldn’t go away. So I threw my hands up and said, “It’s my blog, I’ll do whatever I want with it!” For years, I incorporated spiritual-based articles with an awkward feeling, thinking I’d be “limiting my audience” and “pushing readers away”.

When my daughter was 14 months, I went back to work twice a week. And I hated it. I felt in my bones it was not right. So when I spoke with my boss to communicate that I was finally done, the reason that popped out of my mouth startled me. Almost instinctively, I said I felt the need to write about God and do something bigger with my life.

The Moving Process

My husband caught the entrepreneurial bug and began to build and sell businesses. Through this process he birthed a new thought in our family’s head: moving to a state with no state tax and a friendlier place to do business. We visited my cousins in Texas and I fell in love with the area.

Eventually, I ended up being the driver for the move, when it was never my idea to begin with. Each time we’d go, I felt this overwhelming feeling, like this is where I was meant to be, deep within myself. Looking back, this was God’s voice.

During the moving debate process, many of the original articles on In Wealth and Health that had their roots based on Christ, blew up. For at least a year the attitude posts were leading the pack and proving to me that people need, and will read, what God has to say through me. It showed me that writing about Christ in a secular world was absolutely the right thing to do. My feelings of insecurity flew out the window when the idea of a book popped into my mind.

It All Comes Together

This gave rise to The Attitude Antidote: A Whole Life Overhaul 21 Day Devotional. I wrote and published the devotional in less than a year. (I was motivated by none less than the Spirit!) This was about three years after the talk with my boss. During the writing process, I completely felt the Spirit overcome my mind while composing this book each morning. Truly, this book was co-written with God’s hand. As I can now see, this was obviously one of God’s big plans for me. He lined up many small things to make this happen; another large cluster of puzzle was put into place.

But God didn’t stop there. As a child who had never left the county I was born in, I ultimately was led to moving half-way across the United States. There is no other explanation for this other than God’s voice – God’s plan.

Living in the home I’d never left, I felt a growing unsettled feeling. So within two years, we moved! (Not without many days of worry, debate, prayer and tears.) But once it was in motion, that feeling of unsettlement disappeared. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I flew in, seeing my new home. Again, another chunk of the puzzle was being put into place.

Here We Are Now

This was one month ago. So here I am sitting in my new room, in a new city, in a new state, yet I feel completely content. Two nights ago, I was allowed a peek into the future via God’s plan involving the book and the move… And if this is truly where it goes, one day I will see that it all makes sense. And that’s how it always goes! It will always make sense when God is involved.

So obviously my plan is still in motion, as yours is too. Things are still being lined up, getting ready to be put into place.

I typically don’t write so bloggy about my life, but again, I felt led to share this story to perhaps help someone hear God in their own lives.

As many great leaders have advised, I’ve found this to be true:

Consistent prayer is the only way to hear God and let Him in.

A Prayer To Hear His Voice For Your Plan

If you desire His presence in your life – his plan – pray for it. Ask for it. One of my daily prayers for years went like this:

[God, take my life and lead it where you want it to be. I want the plans you have for my life, for I know they will be much grander than the plans I have for myself. My life is yours, Jesus, take it and make me who you need me to be. Open my eyes to see you. Open my ears to hear you. Move me to where you need me. I want what’s best for my family and for your plan, therefore I surrender my life to you.]

If you are in daily communication with Jesus, you can then trust your gut feelings and go from there. When our lives our noisy, it is difficult to hear much, especially something as subtle as God’s voice. So it is quite important to make quiet time a priority so you can chat with God and feel what you’re feeling. It will give you comfort and clarity.

If you’re longing to hear God’s voice and you’re taking time to meet with Him, you will be led via your consistent gut feelings. I hope you have found this story to be helpful for your own life! God loves you  and so do I! I will pray for all who read this, who are longing to hear His voice.