The Watering Hole is a virtual stopping space in the midst of our crazy, hectic, and wildly beautiful week to week lives, to breathe deep and take a drink at the well of the Lord.

Here’s today’s drink:

Jeremiah 29:11 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.

I love that we have a God who has plans for us. He knows who we are, how He created us and what He made us for. I also love that He straight up tells us that these are good plans, but do we trust Him? It takes grit to hold on to the plan of God when the world tells us what we are supposed to be doing every turn we make in life. This is why we must have vision. We need to be able to see ahead. I couldn’t tell you how many times I have gotten stuck in the past, not just on those big hurtful moments in my childhood but on those little moments that happen that spin in my head for two days and I can’t quite get my brain to stop thinking about it. Having vision on our own often ends up being a lot like having resolutions at the beginning of the year. We work toward them for a while but then they fizzle out, we move on or should I say we drift on. Having a vision is different! When we see as the Lord sees it changes things. Why? Because it is unchangeable. He is unchangeable. He knows the plans and He is working them out. Having this kind of vision isn’t based on our ability to do it. It is based on His faithfulness to accomplish what He said He would. Vision gives us a strength to be unmoved by hard hearts before us and stay the course when we would have otherwise given up. Pastor Lynn gave us great examples of two men. William Wilberforce and Billy Graham. Both these men lived out their destinies by hanging on to their identities in Christ. Wilberforce fought hard for the abolishment of slavery in the British parliament for 18 years to finally see the bill pass 4 days before he died. Graham has spent his life preaching the gospel seeing millions of people come to know Jesus as their personal savior. You don’t keep on keeping on like that in your own strength. You have to be rooted in something greater than yourself.

Identity and Destiny are the 2 main items we must deal with:

1. Identity – We have a settled identity in Christ. It is unchangeable and unmovable. This identity causes us to stand in midst of wrongs and work to make them right. We refuse to become complacent or passive when we know who we are. When we see injustice the heart of God in us cries out and we are moved to do something about it. 
2. Destiny – We were created to do something. It may not be like Wilberforce or Graham but I tell you what, it will be like Christ in you moving in this world. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Christ in us will move us to do the work we were created to do. 

So how do we settle these? We have to find what is keeping us from caring about our identity and destiny. Why are we complacent? Why have we decided that drifting is ok to do? Maybe we haven’t found freedom in Christ yet to be who we are and what we are. Maybe we haven’t figured out that “Christ in me” is the hope of glory! What holds us back? All the baggage, sin, trauma and drama that we are hanging on too that has created a whole lot of things with one main tap root: FEAR! We fear failure. We fear rejection. We fear what people will think of us. We fear others are better than we are. We fear the future. We fear the unknown. The antidote: TRUST! Not trust in ourselves or trust in other people, but trust in God! Are you willing to settle your heart and trust in the Lord who has made you and called you to good works? Will you trust Him? It is a question worth repeating and one you will have to answer.  If you don’t or you won’t then you will be in a wrestling match all your days with the One who created you. He is calling you! God put miracles in you. He put praise works in you. We don’t have to fight for it, hustle for it or make it happen. We just have to trust Him and move as He says move, knowing that at the right time it will all unfold and when it does you will suddenly take a look at your life and wonder in awe of who He is. Will you allow God to give you the vision He has for your life?

Leave a comment: What have you been struggling with? How is God helping you see the beauty in who He made you to be?

Thanks for Listening,

Starla