Tony Evans encourages us to be confident in the destiny that God has for us and to not be afraid of our detours. He says that, “part of experiencing your destiny is understanding your detours.” Our detours can feel like hopeless situations. You may have just had an awful year full of heartbreak, anger, frustration, or loss, but know that it is only a detour and it is designed to shape your character to move you further forward in God’s plan for you.
Your next year can have a bullet-proof plan to success, maybe you will avoid certain things or maybe you will consume yourself with certain things. The one thing that we can be sure of is that God is in control no matter what we choose. Jeremiah 29 tells us that God’s plan for us is hopeful, it doesn’t say that we will know what it is or that it will unfold the way we think it will. But what we can plan for is that our destiny with Christ will give us hope.
Romans 8 explains, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
It was the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross that sets us free from pain and death. We may still encounter detours of frustration while we inhabit a sinful world. But God being rich in mercy removes that pain from us and in its place we have the Holy Spirit. If you are to make one resolution for the year ahead, let it be to glorify God in all that you do, even when life throws a detour in your way.
