THE PLAN: God's Plan and You

Why am I here? Have you ever asked yourself this question? I hope so because, make no mistake, this is THE foundational question that will influence how you live your life. After all, WHERE you find your purpose is WHERE you will invest your life. Let me explain…

Let's say you believe that you exist ONLY to attain fame and fortune. Well guess what? You will PRIMARILY make personal investments in ME-focused things like music lessons, sports camps, study groups, personal trainers, and self-help seminars. BUT if you believe that you exist ONLY to attain blessings for others then you will PRIMARILY make personal investments in OTHERS-focused things like tutoring, mentoring, service and social care projects. In fact, if you want to know whether you believe you exist primarily for the sake of YOURSELF or OTHERS look at how you spend your time. Do you spend more of your time on ME-focused activities or OTHERS-focused activities?

But how does God want us to spend our time? What is God's purpose for our existence? Well, the book of Genesis gives us the answer.

GENESIS 12:1-3 

Genesis 3-11 describes a world plagued by pain, sin, and curses. But this is not the world God intended. NO. The world God intended is found in Genesis 1-2. It's a world of rest, peace, and blessing (2:2). So how is God going to repair His broken creation and bring BLESSING back to a CURSED world? Well, God's restoration plan is found in Genesis 12:1-3. In this passage, the word 'bless' is repeated five times to show that God's restoration plan will offset the five uses of the word 'curse' in Genesis 1-11 (3:14, 17; 4:11; 5:29; 9:25). God's plan sets out to reverse the curse! Here’s what it says,

“The Lord said to Abram, ‘GO [literally: walk] from your country, your people and your father’s household to the LAND I will show you. I will make you into a GREAT NATION and I will bless you; I will make your NAME GREAT [so that] you [will] BE a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and ALL PEOPLES ON EARTH will be blessed through you.’”

God's plan is simple...God is going to make Abram into a large community of PEOPLE ["great nation"], plant these people on a specific piece of PROPERTY ["the land"], make these people PROMINENT as they live out God's creation design ["great name"], so that the entire PLANET will be blessed through the prominence of these God-centered people ["all people's on earth"]. However, the success of this plan requires follow-through from both God and people. How so? God's end of the bargain requires that He provide offspring, land, and blessing to His people while God's people need to provide loyalty and OBEDIENCE to their God.

THE CONDITIONS OF GOD'S COVENANT
But what specific OBEDIENCE does God REQUIRE of His people? According to this passage, we need to GO outside of our comfort zone to a broken world [so that] we can BE a blessing to broken people. We need to GO and BE! But God's plan is not for the faint of heart. GOING requires that we become comfortable with being uncomfortable as we reach out to a broken world. BEING a blessing requires that we move from a ME-focused life to an OTHERS-focused life.
_______________________________________

[An aside on the nature of covenants]...God's covenants are everlasting but not unconditional (Genesis 17:7). In other words, God's covenants are permanent - meaning he will bring them to fruition - but they demand something of people. All covenants have promises and corresponding obligations. We will see these in God's future covenants. God places obligations on Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3; 17:1), Moses (Exod. 19:5-6), David (1 Kings 2:1-4), and even places obligations on Christians in the New Testament (Matt. 5:17-20). People who defiantly rebel against God's covenant obligations will not experience the promises of the covenant...God will put the fulfillment of His covenant on hold until future generations! What are the practical implications of this? Even though God requires obedience from His people, He will never give up on them!
_______________________________________

And so, God's covenant with Abraham has REQUIREMENTS and CONDITIONS. These conditions (of GOING and BEING) are reemphasized in Genesis 17:1 when God says to Abraham, "I am God Almighty; WALK before me faithfully and BE blameless." But why does God emphasize these two CONDITIONS? Well, they must be foundational to achieving the goal of His mission to RESTORE a broken world. How so?

THE IMPORTANCE OF 'GOING'
Can you imagine if Abram refused to GO? Don't you think there's a good chance that God's plan would sit idle and collect dust? And so, God chose someone who was FAITHFUL to GO. As a result, God's plan was activated. So how does this relate to us today? We live in a PRIVATIZED culture where we can make following God ALL about engaging in PRIVATE spiritual disciplines. Now PRIVATE spiritual disciplines are certainly helpful to our spiritual formation. However, Jesus tells us to "GO and make disciples." Our OBEDIENCE to this command requires that we add a PUBLIC dimension to our PRIVATE faith. In other words, we need to live out loud! We can't be controlled by what other people think about us. We need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable...and GO!

THE IMPORTANCE OF 'BEING'
But simply GOING is not enough. Imagine Abram GOING but then refusing to live by God's standards and design for life. Imagine he conducted business dishonestly, was the biggest gossip on the block, and was known as the neighborhood bully. Would this help God achieve His goal of restoring a broken world? I don't think so! This is why God commanded Abraham to BE BLAMELESS. This is simply a fancy way of saying, "Be like God." And the more we BE-come like God, the better we represent Him to the world around us! And the ultimate goal of showing God's love, compassion, kindness, and blessings to the world around us is a RESTORED creation. But attaining this goal requires BE-coming OTHERS-focus.

THE BOTTOM LINE

So how does all of this relate to you? God created you and me to restore a broken world. But to join God in his plan, we need to accurately reflect God to the world around us by loving others well and by investing our lives for the sake of others. This involves moving from a ME-focused existence to an OTHERS-focused existence. But God doesn't just want us to do this as INDIVIDUALS, He wants us to do this as a COMMUNITY. So let me ask you, do you want to be used by God BOTH as an INDIVIDUAL and in your faith COMMUNITY? If so, then you will begin to truly understand God's purpose for your existence!

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

How much of what you invest your life in is for the purpose of attaining your own personal blessing?

How much of what you invest your life in is for the purpose of attaining blessings for others?

What are some practical ways you can move from a ME-focus to an OTHERS-focus?