Tuesday, January 31, 2012
“God Has Plans For You!”
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace,
not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.” Common English Bible
I have been asked more times than I would care to remember are you following God’s plan for your life? Now that is a loaded and intimidating question. Christianity has been consistent in its belief that God has a plan for our lives and that our purpose in life is to follow it. As I think about it now it connotes a very limited approach to living and certainly to the God who created the universe. I have read Jeremiah 29: 11 more times than I could ever recall. It is certainly one of my favorite scriptures for my ministry and my life. As a matter of fact it is displayed in my office right beside my computer so that I see it everyday. In looking over that passage recently it came to my attention that the word plans that is used twice in the text is the plural form of the word plan. I am not sure why I have never noticed it before now. I have been reading this text all my life from the beginning of my ability to read the Bible. Now that I see the text as it is with the plural form of the word plan the meaning of this text now becomes so much larger! It is not the typical plan God has for us that we have always been taught in our Christian upbringing, but plans! Think about that for just a moment. Plans!!!!!!!!
Personally I have always struggled with the God’s plan concept not because I didn’t believe there was truth to it but because it seemed so limiting and so impossible to live. If God has only one plan for us to live than there is a feeling that if we don’t get that right or follow it to the letter we are really in trouble and we have missed the whole point of all that God has for us in life. It is quite disturbing really when you think about it! For someone who have been living outside of what many would interpret as God’s plan for their life then you can almost get to point of desperation and just say what the heck! I think about the lives of my children. Since they were born I certainly have had some dreams, hopes, and plans for them. But just one plan? Can you imagine how intimidating it would be for my children to share with them Daddy’s one plan and one plan only and my expectation that they are living it!
Plans! Now that word brings a whole new meaning to God and life and our relationship with God. It just is more consistent with the overall salvation history as told by our Bible where God is depicted as adjusting and altering God’s love and relationship to God’s creation over and over again. Isn’t that why Jesus came? Didn’t Jesus come among us to bring a new sense of God’s love incarnationally revealed and lived in a human being? Isn’t Christ the best example we have of the truth of Jeremiah’s powerful imagery and prophecy as it comes to life. Such words provide great comfort and hope to me as God’s child. Such truth makes me realize that God is not dictating a singular plan that is limiting and rigid but open and flexible. Such a description gives the impression that God does know us and that God has plans for us and those plans are tied to who we are as human beings as much as it is tied to who God is as God. How freeing to hear the word plans!
God has plans for you my friend! There is nothing quite like knowing and sensing the truth of that!
I will see you on the road,
Travis
Romans 8:28
