Today is my birthday. That’s right. April 14, 19––. (Sorry, you don’t get to know the rest of it.) Though today is a Saturday like all other Saturdays, it feels extra special to me. Birthdays have a way of doing that, don’t they?
On this occasion, I would like to share with you a story my mother told me regarding my birth that has impacted my life ever since.
I was born in Corning, a small town in northern California. In the months leading up to my birth, every day, a minister from one of the local churches would walk by our house on his way to and from work. He would stop by the house and ask if he could pray for the unborn baby. He was not the minister of my parents’ church, nor was he trying to recruit them to attend his. His only comment of explanation was (and I quote my mother’s memory), “I feel God has great plans for this baby.” And then they would pray.
My mother told me this story early in my life, so any time I experienced any sort of success, I would think, “This is how I am going to be great.” But then almost on the heels of success, I would encounter defeats and difficult disappointments. But despite these ups and downs, I never forgot that anonymous minister’s words: “God has great plans for this baby,” because I know two things. One––God makes promises, and two––God keeps them.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking: God didn’t actually make this promise, a minister did, but I would suggest to you that God did lay it on his heart to stop and relate this message to my mother. And I believe it was indeed a promise from God, but a promise God makes to each one of us, for God has set all of us apart for great things.
How do I know this? First of all, because God made each one of us unique. As David said in Psalm 139:13: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.”
Second, because the words God spoke to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 could be said to each one of us: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”
Anyone sanctified by the blood of Christ has been set apart by God to do great things for His kingdom. Whether or not those achievements equate to greatness in the eyes of the world, who knows.
The words of that minister to my mother and his prayers for me I have always considered my “birth promise.”
But we must all remember that Bible is full of God’s promises, and as soon as we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are born again, and all those promises become our––birth promises.
On this occasion, I would like to share with you a story my mother told me regarding my birth that has impacted my life ever since.
I was born in Corning, a small town in northern California. In the months leading up to my birth, every day, a minister from one of the local churches would walk by our house on his way to and from work. He would stop by the house and ask if he could pray for the unborn baby. He was not the minister of my parents’ church, nor was he trying to recruit them to attend his. His only comment of explanation was (and I quote my mother’s memory), “I feel God has great plans for this baby.” And then they would pray.
My mother told me this story early in my life, so any time I experienced any sort of success, I would think, “This is how I am going to be great.” But then almost on the heels of success, I would encounter defeats and difficult disappointments. But despite these ups and downs, I never forgot that anonymous minister’s words: “God has great plans for this baby,” because I know two things. One––God makes promises, and two––God keeps them.
Now, I know what some of you might be thinking: God didn’t actually make this promise, a minister did, but I would suggest to you that God did lay it on his heart to stop and relate this message to my mother. And I believe it was indeed a promise from God, but a promise God makes to each one of us, for God has set all of us apart for great things.
How do I know this? First of all, because God made each one of us unique. As David said in Psalm 139:13: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.”
Second, because the words God spoke to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 could be said to each one of us: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”
Anyone sanctified by the blood of Christ has been set apart by God to do great things for His kingdom. Whether or not those achievements equate to greatness in the eyes of the world, who knows.
The words of that minister to my mother and his prayers for me I have always considered my “birth promise.”
But we must all remember that Bible is full of God’s promises, and as soon as we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are born again, and all those promises become our––birth promises.
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