No Need for a Back-Up Plan

I had a story prepared to post to the blog but decide not to after I received a telephone call from one of my friends. She called to ask for my advice on pursue her dreams of being a restaurant owner and should she have a back-up plan in the event things do not work out. My answer to her was “you do not need a back up plan.” Here is why I believe she does not need a back-up plan.

“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.” Jeremiah 29:11 The Lord spoke these very words to the prophet Jeremiah and I know they are applicable to us today.

We all have a purpose and plan for our lives, so when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior that plan and purpose becomes clearer to us as we drawer closer to God. Before I answered the call of God on my life, I want to be a sportscaster. Yea, I want to be a sportscaster. I just thought since I loved sports, I loved talking about sports, and I knew about all the major sports in America why not pursue a career sports broadcasting. I went on to school, joined the broadcaster club, did an internship with a local news station, became a member of the National Association of Black Journalist and graduated from North Carolina Central University with a Bachelors of Arts in Mass Communications. I was will on my way to becoming the Oprah Winfrey of sports broadcasting.

Armed with my degree in hand, I was ready to take the media world be storm. But God had other plans for my life. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8

See after being away from home for so many years, I should not have been apprehensive about starting out in another state but I was. Yet, there was some apprehensive there. Furthermore, there was something on the inside of me telling me to come home. I knew coming home to Washington, DC was risky for my career being DC is one of the top media markets, which means it is very hard to get into as a fresh face journalist. So, I found myself during odd jobs in between job interviews for media outlets.

After being turned down more times than I can count, I found myself one night on my knees crying out to God for some guidance. I was at my wits end, tried of being rejected and honesty I was tried of seeing everyone else prosper in their chosen career fields but me. That night I asked God, what plans do You have for me, why was I here on this earth. I knew He had a plan for my life because I read in His book of life and I believed it.

The next day while I was sitting at my desk, God brought to my mind an article I wrote as a freshman in college. I wondered what it meant, I did not have to wait long for God’s response, He said to write a book based on the article. My response was to tell God, I was not going to tell the world my business. See the book I was told to write was how God had seen me through the dark days and how He was sustaining me through His Word, love, grace and mercy. I still hesitate at the thought of putting everything I had been through into a book for all to read. But then God brought to my mind the prayer I prayed from the night before and said, “this is my plan for you.” To use your talent of story telling, writing, the testimony I have given you and the spiritual gifts I have bestow upon you, I am going to use you to minister to my lost sheep. WOW!!! As a babe in Christ I was blowing away at the thought of God using me. Furthermore I was intrigue and wanting to know more about these spiritual gifts that God had bestow upon me. God answered my intrigue in the form of a Bible Study class on Spiritual gifts. I learned what my gifts were, what they were meant for and how to operate in my gifts.

The spiritual gifts God has bestowed upon me are the gift of encouragement, the gift of evangelism and the gift of prophecy. See in order for me to write, I have to have something to write about (God), I have to have a purpose for writing a book or this blog (so others will have a right relationship with God) and I have to be encourage myself (Holy Spirit) to write, to be an encouragement to others I thought evangelism had to be a face-to-face thing but God said I can uses your writing, as longs as I am in it, to reach those I am seeking to reach. The Apostle Paul wrote letters of encourage as well as evangelistic letters to the different churches and people throughout during his time. Not only telling them about the glory of God but also teaching them about a right relationship with God.

After spending time with God and in His Word I learned more about His plan for my life. I accepted the call of my life to be used for God’s glory and most importantly I want to operate in the plan and purpose God had predestined for me. He had a plan for my life way before He placed me in my mother womb. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” Jeremiah 1:5 My life was already laid out for me before I was a thought in my parent’s mind.

I know in my heart as well as in my mind God called me to ministry in the writing form, why do I need a back up plan when God clearly says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind."1 Samuel 15:29 So if the Father promised you He had a plan for you and He showed you that plan for your life, follow Him. He will lead you to where He wants you to be in all areas of your life not just your career. As long as I follow the plans God has for me I do not need a back-up plan.

So, that is why I told my friend she does not need a back up plan. If God instill in you’re the drive, the will and the purpose to do something, DO IT. “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion…” Philippians 1:6