What are your plans for tomorrow, next week, next month or next year? Are you a planner? Got everything mapped out? Well God’s Word says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe that we should set priorities in our lives and set goals for ourselves. I know that without planning to a certain extent we can loose focus and not maintain a clear vision of where we want to go. I believe that God wants us to live purposefully and not just sit back in a relaxed posture and let things happen all around us. There is nothing wrong with planning, but we must know what the word of God tells us about our present and our future. Even as we plan we must ensure that we seek God’s guidance for the decisions we make in our lives. We have to be open to any changes to our plans and willing to re-evaluate our plans when necessary. First and foremost we need to seek Him while we are establishing our plans. To lay out our plans without praying and seeking God’s guidance and counsel is devising a plan that more than likely is out side of His plan. The bible tells us emphatically that God’s plans will prevail over any of our plans. The word prevail means to gain victory or superiority or to dominate. Telling us that His plan will be victorious and superior over anything we plan no matter how great we think our plans are. As you make your plans be flexible; change is simply God leading us in the right direction and setting us on the right path. It is inevitable. His plan is perfect and our plan derives from the tiny picture that we are allowed to see. God sees the entire picture from the beginning to the end. He is the alpha and the omega and knows the beginning and the ending. If you can compete with that then continue to make your plans, follow them and see how quickly you will be saying, what in the world or how in the world did I end up here when I specifically set out to be somewhere totally different. It’s not a mystery; it is the Master’s plan. A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

The hope of Jeremiah 29:11 is that we serve a faithful God who directs our steps and will always keep His promises. The Bible tells us that God is not a man, that He should lie; nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19). Jeremiah 29:11 are the words Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the elders of the exiles, to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar forced out of Jerusalem to live in Babylon. The words Jeremiah sent are the promises of God that assured the Jews in Babylon that He had not forgotten them. God tells Jeremiah to tell the exiled Israelites that He has a plan for them–that he has a plan to prosper them and give them hope and a future. The hope of Jeremiah 29:11 for today is that He has everything planned and have laid out His promises for our lives. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God (2 Corinthians 1:20). You can count on the promises of God because Jesus is saying, “Yes” and “Amen” to them on our behalf. Let us pray that we will be open and receptive to the plans God has for our lives and have the assurance that God’s promises are Yes and Amen. In between the Yes and Amen, LET US PRAISE!

God Bless,
Rhonda

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 4:33 pm and is filed under EC Chatter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.