“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul,” Mark 8:36-37.
Are you following after your dreams or God’s plan for your life? 
There is a lot of talk in our generation about creating your own success: planning your life, build your business, and making your dreams come true. It’s enough to make anyone reexamine their life and ask if it is enough.
I almost bought into this way of thinking. I started thinking about how to make life better and fulfill all my hearts desires through my own efforts. But as I was having these thoughts and seriously considering taking charge of my own life, I realized that there is something innately wrong with this way of thinking – it leaves God out.
The Bible says we have been bought with a price, His precious blood. We belong to God and not ourselves. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10. Since God has created for prepared good works we should seek to find out what those are instead of go after the counsel of our own hearts. Proverbs 16:25 says, “our ways seem right to us be in the end it brings death.” (emphasis mine)
Jeremiah the Prophet
Jeremiah was a prophet of God in the Old Testament. He did not pick his calling. God chose him. Jeremiah 1:4-8 records their conversation, “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’ Then said I: ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am but a youth.’ But the LORD said to me: ‘Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,’ says the LORD”.
Most people reject God’s plan at first.
At first Jeremiah did not want to live out the Lord’s plans for his life. He did not feel adequately equipped to do what God had planned for him. He tried to tell the Lord why he wasn’t the man for the job. Then the Lord had to affirm His purpose and assure Jeremiah that He would show him how to walk out His plan and be with him each step of the way. He soon saw that God’s plan was better than his. Not only that but he found out that outside of God’s plan there is no peace for the soul. Just like Jeremiah, when we reject God’s plan and opt to do things our way we have no peace.
There are many instances in which what we want and what God wants are the same or at least agree and compromise. However, when they don’t we have to leave our will at the foot of the cross where mercy and grace meet – mercy for the stubbornness of not wanting to let go of our dreams and grace to yield to God’s plan.
Embrace and be at peace with God’s plan for your life.
Don’t get distracted by what you see other people doing / posting on social media. Focus on what God has given you to do. He has called some people to bigger tasks than others but no one is more significant because of what they do. The goal of life is to find your purpose and fulfill it. Therefore doing God’s plan is the best success.
As we enter into the last quarter of this year civic year, the beginning of the Hebraic year and the start of new season around the world, my prayer for you and myself is simply this: that we would know what the will of the Lord is and seek not after our own dreams but to know His plan.
Beloved, if He has already revealed His plan to you then yield to Him completely and seek in Him how to proceed. If you don’t know His will for your life ask Him to show you and know that He will reveal it in time.
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