Jen’s Gem:  Your words create your future.

One of the projects on my 2023 list of goals was to clean out my file cabinet. Since I had a bit of free time this week, I decided to tackle this labor intensive task. Among the years of tax returns and medical records, I found some paperwork from my days in corporate America.

I came across a letter I’d written as part of my application for graduate school. In it, I shared that my future career plans were to oversee the development of financial systems. I had no idea what that even meant, but it sounded good!

Here’s the kicker. Years later, this is exactly what I was doing! I managed financial systems for large corporations and directed the development of innovations like online banking, secured email, and mobile deposits.

Without having a clue as to what the future would hold, I “created” the vision for my life with my words. Look what the Bible tells us in Habakkuk 2:2-3:

“Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.” (NKJV)

My “tablet” was a letter to the dean of admissions. 

I’m no longer in charge of financial systems for big companies. Yet I still use my technology, marketing, and business knowledge. I no longer use my communication skills to develop user manuals but rather to develop content for my clients that I hope will help them to achieve their visions. I no longer teach people how to use computers, but rather I now teach people the Word of God.

Today is my birthday. Have I accomplished everything I’d hope for in this past year? In the past decade? No. 

But, here’s what I’m learning. Visions don’t happen in a day. A vision happens when you take purposeful steps towards it every day. A vision happens when you don’t give up, make excuses or let fear take root. A vision happens when you ask for help – from God and from others.(Proverbs 19:20-22).

I don’t know when God’s vision for me will come to pass, but I know it will. His Word does not return void. It will happen.

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11 NKJV)

Do you have God’s vision for your life? Have you written it down? I want to encourage you to do so. Who knows? Maybe in ten years you’ll look back and see that you were able to predict the future.