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11"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD… These set of verses give me hope, and strengthen my faith. I especially like this translation because of choice to use the word “declares,” not “says”, nor “mentions”, nor “whispers”, but “declares.” I have had three major life changes planned by God in just that last couple of years. The first was getting me to a place where I was able, and willing to move back near my parents in Minnesota. I’m not a big fan of winter and would never on my own choose to live there, but God had other plans. He wanted me to be near my Dad for the last couple of years of his life. The things God had to put in place to make that one happen are miraculous – a specific college degree followed by 5 cross-country moves, the purchase of one company by another, and lastly putting me in a job in a location that was so awful, that moving to Minnesota seemed like a very good option. My family needed me in Minnesota during those years just as much as I needed to be near them. My faith in God was faltering. Things weren’t going well in my life. I was really mad and confused at, and about God. But seeing my Dad’s steadfast faith as he dealt with incurable cancer brought me back to faith. It is during this time that I came across Jeremiah 29; and His miraculous plan, all of a sudden became clear. So now, every morning as I’m walking my dog I pray, “God, make your plan for my life obvious.” I confess that while I pray that everyday, I’m not always good at seeing God’s obvious plans. For example, His plan to get me back to DC. God tapped me on the shoulder with it, then hit me with a stick, and eventually had to hit me with a 2”X12” beam to let me see His plan, while all the while, every morning I was praying, “God, just make it obvious.” Obvious sometimes takes the form of 2”x12” beam. Most recently, God seems to pushing me to make a BIG career change. While the specific path I’m supposed to take seems a bit fuzzy, because I see a multitude of paths that seems to be where He is leading, I have no doubt, given the reality of what I have experienced of God’s declared plans for me in the past, that His will, will be done. Are you looking for plans that God has declared for you? |
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Saint James United Methodist Church
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