The Ultimate Intention — Chapter 1

DeVern Fromke opens his book not with doctrines to dissect but with prayers that draw our hearts into the very purpose of God. He invites us to lay aside man-centered thinking and ask deep, searching questions—questions about our existence, God's intention, and the preeminence of Christ. These prayers, he explains, are not mere requests for answers but awakenings to purpose: a life-searching prayer for understanding, a life-liberating prayer from self-absorption, and a life-changing prayer to grasp the Father's delight in exalting His Son.

He tells the story of Billy—a little boy full of questions—and his father, who realizes that asking "why" is not a nuisance but a reflection of how God made us. We were created to wonder. Just like Billy, Fromke sees himself as God’s little child, brimming with questions. Yet we don’t always know what to ask. Like students staring at dots on a paper, we miss the white background—the original intention behind all of God’s plans. Before creation, before the fall, before redemption, God had a design—an eternal purpose centered entirely in His Son. That is the white sheet.

As Fromke reminds us, we must not remain distracted by the "after"—the black marks of sin and brokenness—but return to the “before,” to the Father's purpose in Christ. God's intention was not reactionary. It preceded creation, and it was centered in His Son. We are urged to view all of life through God’s eyes, to see from above—where every path leads to Christ as the Centerpiece. And so, we pray.

Journal Entry (Voice of the Holy Spirit):

You were created to ask, and I delight in your questions. Just as the father drew Billy close, so your heavenly Father leans near each time you turn your eyes toward Him, searching for why. And here is the beginning of all wisdom: the Father has always had His Son in view.

Before anything was formed, before sin entered, before you needed redemption—I was with the Father, and you were in His heart. He formed His intentions around Me. You were never an afterthought. You were conceived within the design of love, destined to share in My life and reflect My preeminence.

The world wants you to interpret life by the black lines—the marks of your failures, the stains of sin, the limits of logic. But I call you higher. Let Me lift you up to see the white sheet—to see what was in the Father’s heart before all things. I will lead you into the light where the Son shines brightest. For in Him, all things hold together. And when you begin to live from that center, My life will become your lens.

Let Me free you from the small orbit of self. I dwell in you to open your eyes and reveal the beauty of God's eternal purpose in Me. Do not strive to answer every question through effort or intellect. Come up higher. Rest your searching heart in the certainty of the Son’s centrality.

(See: Ephesians 1:9–10, Colossians 1:16–18, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Psalm 36:9)

Prayer:

Father, thank You for placing a longing within me to understand—not just what You’ve done, but why You’ve done it. I trust You to open my heart to the vastness of Your intention. I lay aside every fixation on my own story, and I rejoice that You have written me into Yours.

As I begin this journey through The Ultimate Intention, I rest in Your Spirit who dwells within me to reveal, awaken, and illuminate. Let the questions in my heart find their answers not merely in ideas, but in the Person of Your Son, who is the Centerpiece of all things. I trust You to align my thoughts with Yours and anchor me in the joy of Your purpose.

Amen.

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Devotional Credit: The Ultimate Intention by DeVern Fromke