Who Are You?

By Montana Lawrence

When you take a look at your life what do you see? Who have you been, who are you going to be? Maybe you are exactly who you always dreamed you would be or maybe life is not going the way you had always hoped. Well, I pray that the words I have for you today can show you that no matter who you are, no matter what you are going through, God loves you and He has a plan for your life. When we begin to seek God’s plan for our lives we must first examine our walk with God. Then we will take a look at the importance of trusting and believing in God and finally we will learn how important our dreams are in our lives.

In seeking God’s plan you must examine your walk with Him. Psalms 23:3 says, “He guides me along the right path for His namesake.” Now this poses a question. What is my path? God’s perfect plan is something that He reveals to us gradually throughout our lives. He guides us through life step by step showing us who He wants us to be and what He wants us to do. Everyday God gives us opportunities to follow His plan but He leaves it up to us to make the choices and decisions.

Second, we must understand the importance of trusting and believing in God. God’s plan is perfect and He does love and take care of us, but that does not mean following His plan will be easy or nothing bad will ever happen to you. We live in a fallen world. Sometimes bad things happen and sometimes it’s hard, but no matter what you are going through, God will always be with you, for Psalms 23:4 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” You see God will never leave you no matter what the circumstances. We have to be strong and choose to listen to God instead of all the other voices that tell us it’s too hard and that we can’t do it because let’s face it, there are going to be people in your life that are going to reject you because of your faith in God. But the truth is, God’s opinion of you is so much more important. Sometimes in life, we see ourselves as being caught in something that’s too big for us to handle. When we are in these situations one of the most powerful things we can do is pray. Some of us may think that prayer is simply asking God for things we need, but prayer is actually talking with God. Philippians Chapter 4 verses 6-8 says, “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

We have to trust God because He sees the whole picture when we only see small fragments of it. When we think there is no way out, God makes a way. If we constantly tell ourselves I can’t do it, it’s too hard, then it will be. We have to be more like the little engine that could. As she began that ascend that mountain, she said, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” All the way up the mountain she kept on saying that she could do it and she believed she could. Instead of running away from her challenges, she

faced them with all her might. We have to be willing to face our fears and challenges because God has a way of using them to make us stronger.

Finally, you must both identify and believe in your dreams. On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington DC before thousands of Americans and he declared to all of them that he had a dream. He did not get up and say, “Well guys, segregation is horrible and you know people are being killed, neglected and hurt. Wow, things are really awful for us, maybe we should just give up.” No, he got up on that podium and he said, “ I have a dream.” he knew what he was fighting for and he understood that he had a purpose in life and that now matter who he was and no matter where he came from, God wanted to use him to do great things. A lot of times we as people have difficulty determining what we are working towards and ultimately what we are living for. We spend too much time worrying about our circumstances and not enough time focussing on the things God wants to do through us. That is why dreams are so important in our lives. Our dreams are what set the foundation for some of the major accomplishments we will have. Everyone needs dreams because it’s extremely difficult to determine who you are and who you are going to be without them. God lays certain dreams on everyone’s heart and we have to believe we can accomplish the dream He puts in us. He wouldn’t have given them to us if we could’t accomplish them. However, just wanting your dreams is not enough. You have to work for it and like I said, “It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.” You have to believe in yourself because if you don’t that will set you up to fail. Your mind is a powerful thing. The thoughts you form eventually become a reality. As my dad often puts it, “The body achieves what the mind believes.” Most of all, don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do it because it’s not true. Philippians chapter 4 verse 13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I believe that if you work for your dreams everyday and trust God to guide you, that you will accomplish them. I also believe that anything is possible with God.

In this life, there are very few things worth living for. It’s not enough to live for money or fame or even for ourselves, because you will find that living for our own selfish desires will never give us the ultimate fulfillment that we long for. The only thing that fills that gap, that emptiness in our hearts is Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says, “For God so live the world that He gave His only son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God loves you so much that He was willing to give his own son to die for you. His love is so great it is more than your or I can comprehend. Maybe you think that you can’t find God,that it is too late, but I am here to tell you that every day God gives us opportunities to follow His plan, to love and be loved by Him. We examined our walk with God and then we took a look at the importance of trusting and believing in God and finally we learned how important our dreams are in our lives.

The truth is that God will never stop loving you and when you do choose to receive Him and choose to follow His perfect plan, you will feel His fulfillment in your heart and it will change your life forever.