He Knows The Plans

I have a confession to make!

You know those verses that you hear all the time in church circles? They're on bookmarks. They're embossed onto bible covers and journals. They're 'spoken over' you by those with a heart to bless and encourage you.

We hear those verses so much, I've become allergic to them... well, maybe not allergic... immune, might be a better word.

Instead of the sweet sound of my Father's words of love to me, all I hear are words that are so familiar they float through the space between my ears without ever touching my mind or heart with their wonder. Jeremiah 29:11 is the perfect example. It is an incredible verse, if you really allow it to soak into your heart...

Funnily enough, Jeremiah 29:11 is the verse embossed on the front of my current journal, and the journal before it (funny, that I bought two journals with that verse, when I normally avoid it because I'm worn out by its overuse). Back in December, I had a Big Event planned. It was the kind of event that raises questions in your heart and mind about your future and about the Big Questions in life (like career paths, marriage choices, children, financial decisions etc). The trouble is, I have no answer to the question it raised, and so all the unknowns and 'what ifs' threatened to crowd in and overwhelm.

A couple of days before that Big Event, as I sat in a park to read my Bible and journal, God spoke to me. Here's what I wrote in my journal later,

"When I glanced at the back cover of my journal yesterday and noticed the words written there, 'I know the plans', I sensed God speak those very words to my heart: I know the plans.

It was His presence and His still, small voice that spoke with such clarity I knew my brain was not simply recalling a verse I've heard thousands of times. "I know the plans". His words gave me pause. Like a detailed blueprint, He has sketched out plans for my life, and He knows each and every one of even the tiniest details of those plans with the absolute certainty and confidence of the Creator and Author of that blueprint. It doesn't matter how much I can (or can't!) see of what will (or won't!) happen in my life: He knows.

He knows it ALL from beginning to end, and He is always at work, bringing those plans to pass... I do not know what God has planned... but as I meditated on His words then, and now, they gave me a lovely sense of peace and security. I don't need to try and figure everything out. My Father who loves me - who is leading and directing me - knows the plans. He also shall bring them to pass." (15/12/17)

Maybe every detail of your life is clear and sorted out. I'm not so "lucky". Right now, I live with many unknowns, question marks and unfulfilled dreams. As I live in the "time in between" His promises and their fulfilment, I am so grateful for the assurance and rest this truth has been bringing to my mind and heart.

I don't need to wear my brain out trying to answer every question and figure everything out. Actually, it was never His plan. His desire was, and is, to work on our behalf, to roll out His plan for each of our lives, in His perfect timing as we rest in Him, confident in His goodness and His good intentions towards us.

When we stop to consider how much He has given already, to make us His children; how deeply and profoundly He loves us; we may be sure that our wonderful, good Father is most certainly out-working those plans, even as I write, and will not cease in His labours until He has blessed us with all the welfare and prosperity it has been His heart's delight to give us since before we were even born (and by 'prosperity' I mean so much more than money...our wellbeing, wholeness, favour, spiritual growth and all that was originally understood by the word).

We can let go and rest, dear friend, confident that He knows the wonderful, good plans He has for each of us, and that He is also pleased and able to outwork them in your life