In this morning’s reading, I came across the above verse and, as happens when we’re ready, it resonated in a way it didn’t when I read it in 1992, 1995, 1998 and in 2001 and 2005 (all date notations of reading in the margin; my feeble attempt to assure I don’t miss anything [a tad ironic, as you’ll see]).
It resonated and echoed through the chambers of my heart–and liberated me.
I don’t know God’s plans. I’ve worried over failing in completing them, in doing the right thing in His eyes, not in man’s, and right there in the Good Book was the evidence that I need not have worried at all. Just come to Him with a willing heart.
He knows the plans. If I’m willing and trying to serve Him, then He’ll put the wheels in motion to fulfill His plan. He assures that His plan is to prosper and not harm. Worries two and three–poof!!–gone. He assures His plan gives hope–a necessary ingredient to sustain and keep going, to work against the odds, to attempt what many consider impossible or foolish but we know are neither.
Our futures. He knows our future. He’s planned it. We exercise free will, but He knows the choices we’ll make and He prepares the way by taking that intended for our harm and turning it for good.
And so today I look at Jeremiah 29:11 with a refreshed eye and again I find myself resting under His wing–and grateful to be there.
I don’t have to know the plan. I just have to trust that He knows it, and He’ll show me the way.
And for that blessing, I am most grateful.
Vicki Hinze, My Faith Zone, Jeremiah 29:11, planning
