You Were Not a Coincidence
The Breanna Williams Podcast | Season 4: EXODUS | Episode 7: Why Was I Created
Scripture
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart."— Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)
"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."— Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Devotional
Two questions. Both of them enormous. Both of them are searched by real people in quiet moments when something inside them needs an answer the world hasn't been able to give.
Why was I created?
Does my past define me?
Let's start with the first one — because the answer might shift something in you today.
Out of billions of possible combinations, billions of chances for a different life to show up instead of yours, God chose for you to be born. The odds against your specific existence are staggering. And yet here you are. That's not an accident. That's not randomness. That is intentionality on a level only God operates at.
And you're still here. That matters too. Because your continued presence isn't just biology — it's evidence. You haven't been removed from the story yet because the story isn't finished. There is still something only you can do, something only you can say, someone only you can reach.
Think about the problems in your life that haven't been solved yet. The gaps you keep praying someone would fill. Here's a question worth sitting with: what if you are the answer to that prayer?
That's what happened for me. For years, I wanted someone to really journey with me through the hard parts of faith — not throw books at me, not tell me to just pray harder, but actually walk with me. And I kept praying for that person. Until I realized: I was created to be that for someone else. The very thing I needed and couldn't find was the exact thing God had already put inside me to give.
Whatever keeps showing up in your life that you can't shake — people who open up to you without being asked, a skill that comes naturally even when you're not trying, a problem in your community that nobody seems to be solving — pay attention to that. That's not a coincidence.
That's calling.
And even if you've only reached one person, don't underestimate it. A pebble dropped in water doesn't just create one ripple. It creates dozens. That one person you encouraged, poured into, helped get back on their feet — they went and did it for someone else. And that person for another. Because of you, there is a chain of impact you will never fully see this side of eternity.
You were created to fill a gap. To speak into a life. To be the answer to someone's prayer.
Now the second question — the one that might be sitting heavier.
Does my past define me?
No. But let me say it more precisely: your past is a classroom, not a verdict.
Every experience you've walked through — the ones you're proud of and the ones you wish you could erase — has been teaching you something. The painful ones especially. They've been forming your capacity for empathy, deepening your understanding of grace, and building the very thing someone else is going to need from you later.
But none of it is who you are.
Here's the distinction that changed everything for me: there is a difference between something you did and something you are. You may have cheated — but that doesn't make you a cheater. You may have betrayed someone — but that doesn't make you a betrayer. You may have made a choice that cost you everything — but a choice is not a category. And here's how I know: you can stop. The fact that you can stop means it was never your nature. It was a decision. And decisions can change.
Only God has the authority to define what you are. And He's already spoken. He says you are His child. He says He formed you with intention. He says He prepared good works for you before you were even born. He says your identity is not the sum of your worst moments — it's the truth He declared over you before you took your first breath.
The real question underneath "does my past define me?" is usually this: do I believe what God says about me, or do I believe what I've done?
Because what you believe is what you walk in. If you believe you're a betrayer, you'll move through life as a betrayer. If you believe you're defined by your worst chapter, you'll keep living like you're still in it. But if you believe — really believe — that you are a son or daughter of God, that your past is a classroom and not a life sentence, that you were created on purpose for a purpose? That changes the way you walk into every room.
You are not your history. You are not your labels. You are not your worst moment.
You are created. Intentionally. Specifically. For this time.
And no good Father looks at His child and wants them to believe anything less than that.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reflection Questions
What problem have you been praying for God to solve that might actually be pointing to what you were created to do? Where are you, the answer instead of just the asker?
Think of one person your life has impacted — maybe without you even realizing it. What does that tell you about the ripple effect of simply being who you are?
Is there something from your past that you've been treating as a definition rather than a decision? What's the difference between what you did and who you are — and do you actually believe that distinction?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Prayer
Father,
I'll be honest — I've let my past have more authority over my identity than you do. I've called myself by the names of things I've done instead of the name You gave me.
Today I want to trade those in.
Show me why I'm here. Not a grand plan I have to figure out all at once, but just — show me the person in front of me who needs what I carry. Show me the gap I was made to fill. Help me stop looking for my purpose out there somewhere when You've already been dropping clues every time someone opens up to me, every time something comes naturally, every time I recognize a pain I know how to speak to because I've lived it.
And where my past has had the final word — take that back. You get the final word. You always have.
I am not what I've done. I am who You say I am.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Declarations
Speak these out loud. Let them settle.
I was not born by accident. Out of billions of possibilities, God chose for me to be here — and I am still here for a reason.
I am God's handiwork, created for good works He prepared before I was born. My purpose is not missing — I am walking toward it. (Ephesians 2:10)
My past is a classroom, not a verdict. Every experience has been preparing me — not defining me.
There is a difference between what I did and who I am. I am not my worst decision. I am a child of God who was created.
What I believe shapes how I walk. I choose to believe what God says about me — not what my history says.
I was created to fill a gap, reach a person, and speak a word. Even one ripple matters. I will not underestimate what God put in me.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Season 4: EXODUS — The Breanna Williams Podcast. "Your past does not define you. Only God does — and He's already told you in His word who He made you to be."