The 365: God’s One-Year Plan

By Caren Ellison

God’s purpose for our lives is positioned inside the 365 days of the year
He empowered us to experience. Remember, nothing just happens in
our 365 days. The good, bad, and the ugly are all working together for
our good, including why we are here and how our duties pertain to creation
and the Creator. Still, we may sometimes wonder if there is a divine plan for
humankind or if we just exist.
In a spiritual guide shared to help believers build and nurture a strong
relationship with Christ, Caren Ellison invites truth seekers on a journey with
her as she explores God’s plan for humankind. She searches the scriptures
for our purposes, and within each of the 365 days, illustrates how God’s plan
has helped shape our lives. Throughout her guide that also shares her unique
life experiences, Ellison gently reminds believers that we were created to live
according to His purpose and plan, and we glorify His presence as our Lord
and Savior when we walk in His purpose.
The 365: God’s One-Year Plan utilizes scripture and a pastor’s life experiences
to guide believers to understand and embrace God’s plan and purpose for them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385019724

Caren Ellison

Caren Ellison is the founder and pastor of Word to Life Outreach Church. She is also the founder of a bootcamp where she trained youth to utilize spiritual, physical, and mental discipline to guide them through adolescence. She is currently a Leadership consultant for the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System (VA), a listed mediator for the TN civil court system and married to Anthony Ellison. She is a navy veteran, mother, and grandmother who earned a BA and MBA with a concentration in healthcare management. Caren lives with her husband in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

From Birth

From the moment we leave the birth canal and enter this world, we are exposed to hundreds if not thousands of different antigens, viruses, and bacteria. I call them the invisible elements in the atmosphere. Were it not for the design of our bodies (that is, the outer skin layer as well as the immune system), we would not survive the elements that seem to attack us from birth. The Bible reminds us that Satan is named the prince of the air, which suggests his powers are on a higher realm and designed to destroy life before it has a chance to become fully developed. As a result, we are equipped to fight from birth. Doctors and nurses take many steps to protect the baby once it leaves the birth canal and enters the earthly realm, but the true fight for life is within the body itself. We fight the unknown from birth as if the force of nature has been given an assignment to attack humanity as soon as it makes an appearance in this world. You may ask where I am going with this. I am glad that you asked! Here I go with my why again, but why did God—our Father, the Creator of all humankind—fight so hard to cover us in skin and all the stuff within as if he knew we would be in a fight for our lives from day one? A fight we could not win unless we were internally equipped with a system designed to fight invasions. Psalm 30:3 (NKJV) states, O Lord you brought my soul up from the grave; you have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Listen to the yearning of David to live and come up from the pit, which is where death resides. David’s declaration in this psalm is one of thanks that God desires him to live! God does not want us to die; we were created to live. That is why he has equipped us with so many internal and external defense mechanisms. We are born fighters before we are even aware we are in a fight for our very lives. So I contend that the fight to live is for purpose and destiny. From the very beginning of creation, God had a plan in mind for humankind. Then God said, Let Us make man in our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth (Genesis 1:26 NKJV). We are the work of his hands and the image and likeness of his being. We were created to live according to his purpose and plan, and we glorify his presence as our Lord and Savior when we walk in his purpose.

There is also an enemy to God and his creation. He is the ruler of darkness and called the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2 NKJV). I believe this enemy is against us from birth, and he never sleeps or slumbers. He knows and hates God’s plan for our lives and existence even before we are aware of God and our specific purpose in existence. I believe that is why the fight begins within us to stay alive. The enemy does not fight fair! Our purpose is to live first and foremost, and the fight to do so is inside us. God fights for us to accomplish all that he has gifted our hands to do.

To understand God’s desire for us to live, I asked God, Why do we have to die? In the power that you have given us, we still can’t control the days you have numbered for us on earth. If God’s will is for us to live, why do we have to die at some point? (There goes that why again.) In the following chapters, we journey into the creation of the universe and explore how God made everything in the universe to align with the purpose of humankind. I understand that because of sin—disobedience toward God—our life span was shortened. But from the beginning, God’s desire and design for humankind was to live forever. Let’s walk through the days he has allowed us and increase our awareness of our purposes for life.

What is God’s plan for our individual lives? Let us individually, from one year to the next, see the hand of God bringing the best out of our lives. We must ensure we learn how to make good life choices and sow good seeds throughout the days he has allowed us to live. I can promise if we are connected to Christ, the life giver, and follow his carefully laid-out plan that governs how we live by directing our decisions from day to day. We will see purpose revealed in our lives, so get ready to soar! There are 365 days in a year, and in following this plan, be sure to journal what you see as blessings along the way. Look for God’s favor over your life and any doors that God may open for you during your journey through the year.

I have learned that being blessed by God means being extremely hated by the enemy of God, which is Satan. After all, the most extreme form of hatred exhibited by Satan is to try and destroy what God created in his image and likeness. And just like I am a recipient of the favor of God, I am also a target for the hater of God. Therefore, it is important that we learn how to walk in the path God set for our lives and choose to be in his divine presence and will. Expect to be tempted, expect to go through trouble and sometimes even affliction, and expect to feel as if you must leave the course you are on because of whatever it is you are going through. Remember, the trick of the enemy is to kill, steal, and destroy. When you stop doing anything that was for your good, or when you give up walking in your destiny because of the trials and tribulations you face, you’ve walked right into the enemy’s snare. We have to believe that we will win if we don’t quit!

No matter how hard the struggle, don’t stop trusting, believing, and doing what God has for you to do. Suffering is not always a sign that you are without God; it is also a sign that God is with you. An example of this would be the children of Israel crying out to the God of their forefathers while they were in bondage to Pharaoh. In the book of Exodus, there arose a pharaoh, or ruler, who did not know Joseph or the God of Israel. He noticed that the children of Israel were multiplying and growing to be mightier than he and his people. He became jealous of this, and as a result, he instructed his servants to treat the children of Israel in an extremely harsh manner. This behavior is birthed from the mentality of hate, and the author of it is Satan. From the beginning of time until now, Satan’s evil desire is to be mightier than God and for people to worship him rather than God. Satan’s name means adversary or opposer, and he desires to take the place of Christ in our minds to thwart God’s plan and deceptively become the god humankind answers to. That is why the minds of God’s people are also battlegrounds. They are where Satan challenged God’s authority over his creation. When he deceived Eve into going against the commandment she had been given, she did so by looking at what was forbidden, lusting after it, and consequently giving in to her lust. Her choice to do so caused her to leave her love for God, which would have manifested in keeping the command God gave her. She chose to follow the author of the opposite way of thinking, Satan, who at that point became her god. That’s why we have to fight for our lives and purpose in Christ, beginning with our minds and choices. In so doing, we glorify the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, our Savior Jesus Christ.

The Bible says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5 NKJV). Having a this mind mentality will always defeat having a that mind mentality. That mind, with that being a pronoun, takes ownership away from the one who is speaking. Anytime God uses the words that or those to refer to people, he has excluded himself in the equation. Therefore, that mind belongs to Satan, who has waged war against God. We must understand our journeys double as battles of wills, so to speak. Will it be this mind, or will it be that mind? So game on! It is also important to remember the desire of God for his people. This is where the Christian journey should begin.

CHAPTER 2

Promise Keeper

In the book of Exodus, God heard the prayer of his people and remembered his covenant with Abraham, even after Abraham was long gone. He sent Moses, a type of Christ, first and foremost to deliver his people. Understanding the fact that God remembered his promise and kept it reveals the heart of the God we serve. Knowing he is a promise keeper restores hope to situations that are otherwise hopeless. The exodus of the children of Israel began with God defeating Pharaoh (a type of devil) with miracles, signs, and wonders before the eyes of the people. Like the children of Israel, we learn to follow the plan of God first by believing that he is God and that he can save us from the snare of the enemy.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were ancestors of the children of Israel by the time they were enslaved to Pharaoh, and over four hundred years had passed. Over all those years, the children heard about Jehovah being the God of their forefathers, but their generation never witnessed what they heard firsthand. This is so important to receiving faith because each day was filled with a demonstration of the belief that faith was passed down from generation to generation. The days turned into years; life and death took place. But the covenant of God was kept alive from year to year. And after four hundred years, the children still held the belief of what they had been told, calling on God when in despair. They never personally experienced God for themselves, but they believed the report passed down to them from generation to generation. That is belief at its finest. To believe what has been taught but not experienced is pure and is what being hopeful really means.

The body of Christ has been taught about God in the