Luke 1:14-17
And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.  For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.  And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.  And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

What an amazing, and probably frightening, experience this was for Zacharias.  He was simply doing his duty at the temple when he gets a visit from an angel.  And Gabriel tells him all these wonderful things about a son he would have when both he and his wife are well past that stage of life.  And this wasn’t to be any ordinary baby.

But doesn’t this just show that God has our lives mapped out ahead of time?  Before John was even conceived, Gabriel was able to tell Zacharias exactly who John would become, who God had prepared and created him to be, what he would do, the kind of person he would be, and the unique role he would have in the unfolding of God’s ultimate plan of salvation.  Everything about John was clear and known even before he was born.  And so wouldn’t it also be true that God has a vision of our lives and who we will be even before we are born?

These statements of Gabriel’s about John also show that, despite Zacharias’ initial unbelief, God’s plan would come to pass.  He is talking with certainty about events that will actually happen, even while Zacharias is doubting that it could ever be so.  But God’s plans are always sure and certain.  Everything He wants to happen will happen.  Everything He proclaims as yet to come will come, and it will all play out exactly as He says it will.

We don’t have to live in doubt.  God knew what He was doing when He made us.  We don’t all have the kind of grand life that John the Baptist did, but we all have a God-ordained purpose for our lives.  He made us for a reason.  He created us to fulfill something for Him in this world during our time here.  And we don’t have to ever doubt anything that He says.  He always speaks in certainty, so we can always believe and trust everything that He says.  It’s only a matter of time of seeing it all come to pass exactly as He said ahead of time that it would.