Food for ThoughtJeremiah 29:11 Plan
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

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.”

Most of us are familiar with this verse; it is encouragement for the weary soul and hope for the downhearted who have lost their motivation through long dark hours of the soul.

In this world of turmoil and busy-ness we become sucked into the vacuum of each crisis. The daily struggles we encounter day by day dilute God’s promise of a good and hopeful future. The problems we face as we plan for our future can be a constant barrage of dead ends. We know we have a future, but because of the seemingly endless hardships, we lose focus of tomorrow’s promises which can trap us in the present realities.    

This has to do with the fact that our enemy has issued out an edict and that edict is directed at Christians. The enemy’s plan is to crush our hopes and dreams in the attempt to weaken our resolve to stand in faith. These attacks are meant to replace our strength in Christ with the toxins of apathy. If he can take our hope away, he will succeed in removing our promised prosperity. How can we help others maintain their hope if we ourselves are slowly losing ours?   

It’s hard to keep hope alive in times of suffering. Suffering seems to blind us to hoping in God. His plan is unfolding right before our eyes and He’s using even the most painful of circumstances to springboard us into the next phase.  In these moments we cannot see that what He is doing in this present moment will eventually align us with His plan for our lives.  

The preparation that comes from trials and tribulation manifests itself in our maturity and healing. We all know that God is a good God and only wants good things for us. He works from a place of love and adoration toward us.  When He created us, He planned our future.  Every unlived moment is our future.  But more important than planning our future, He wants to be our future.

We must stand in hope and remember that God does not lie.

We have to believe God and His promise by being grateful that He is willing to give us an undeserved hope and a good future in Him.

Challenge: Believe that God has a plan for you. Thank Him for it and ask for direction.

God bless,

Marni

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lamb-rightThe purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.