By WILL YOU DECLARE YOUR INTENTIONS?
Dr. Randy Carlson
Do you ever feel like you’re on the backside of the moon? Have you started out on one mission in life and ended up on another? You started down one path and all of a sudden, you’re on your way to the moon. You think you’re going to have a successful landing, and you are going to come back, and then all of a sudden, “Houston, we have a problem.” If you’ve seen the movie, Apollo 13 think about that. The turning point of the whole story occurred when Jim Lovell said, “Gentlemen, what are your intentions?” They were so caught up looking at the moon, wishing they could get there. But when he asked them about their intentions, everything changed.
I think it’s easy for us to be on a mission in our lives, going in a certain direction and all of a sudden things blow up. Finances, work, health, relationships … you name it, and there’s a tendency to either look to the past or get caught in the problem. Many get stuck with I wish, I hope, I should, I could, and they’re waiting, disappointed and discouraged. That’s when we need people to speak into our lives and ask, “What are your intentions?”
When you declare your intentions:
- It’s clarifying.
- It eliminates other options.
- It builds your faith.
- It gives you a hope and a future.
- It makes you accountable.
- It sets you apart from other people.
It’s important not to declare your intentions until we know that is coming from God. That is where we get in trouble. Some people deliberately declare wrong intentions, and they are successful at it. Intentional Living works for people who are evil because it’s a powerful truth. When you have an intention and you follow through, things happen.
When you reach a place where you are so passionate, so convicted and so convinced that God has given you the clarity of your intentions, those intentions must be spoken. Then a series of things begin to happen for your good. We can either live our lives at a level of mediocrity or choose to declare our intentions and live them out.
We all have moments in time when we need to make a declaration. “This is where I stand.” “This is what I believe.” “This is where we’re going.” Joshua declared: “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” We need more of that today. We are being pushed and shoved into a mold of our society. The way we think, the way we act and the way we live is are being challenged every day.
If we don’t choose to be intentional by declaring our intentions, we are going to get washed away. We need to be as believers today more convinced than ever of what our intentions are. High intentions are required to be a follower of Christ and be obedient to Him.
In Jeremiah 29, God made a declaration of intention toward you. He said: “I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God’s intentions are unlike human intentions; He actually does them, because let’s face it, we all have good intentions. And we have intentions and sometimes they don’t work out, and that’s disappointing, hurtful and painful. We’ve all experienced that, some more than others. But we know when God makes a declaration of intention, He means it.
So, today I ask you, “What are your intentions?” and “Will you declare them?”
