“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.” – Jer. 29:11
The verse from Jeremiah 29:11 has been standing out to me lately. “”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.” It’s the “I know” part that I keep getting hung up on. He knows. I don’t always get to be in the know but He knows.
God knows the plans he has for me. I really don’t know and can’t even imagine what He has planned for my day tomorrow or even this afternoon or in the next hour, the next minute. I walk blindly from moment to moment and I am glad. I think if I did know, I might fall over and faint with fear or anticipation. I am beginning to get great peace from the fact that I am on a “need to know” basis. God tells me only what I need to know, when I need to know it regarding the plans He has for me tomorrow, this afternoon or even 5 minutes from now. Today, I thank Him for sparing me the details, the extra fear and pain of knowing the valleys ahead or the impatience for His blessings to arrive. I’ve never been good at Christmas time. In his mercy and grace, He shields me in his shadows from the light of tomorrow. He allows darkness to be my time of rest, silence and ignorance to cover me with like a blanket of peace so that his child is not disturbed and made restless with unnecessary anxiety with things to heavy for her to understand and carry right now. His foreknowledge would crush me if I were to share it.
God has his own plans for me and his plans like all of his creation, are good. His plans are plans to prosper, not to harm, plans to give me a hope and a future by my humbly learning to follow his way and not my own. He comforts me with these words regarding the direction of my future, the failure of my plans, in case at any time it seems – as it often does – that my life is headed in the wrong direction. He gently asks me, “Do you trust me? Do you trust my words, my promises to you, no matter what you see or anyone else tells you? Do you trust me? Will you follow me even here, even to the cross?”
There are some deep and dark valleys behind me and before me, some narrow roads that he promises to lead me through holding my right hand all the way. And I grip his hand tighter and humbly respond, “Yes, I trust you, even in this. You will never leave me or forsake me, you guide each of my steps, your presence ever goes before me teaching and leading me in all your ways. Lead on. Lead me away from the ways of this world and closer to yourself. I trust you with my life. As long as you know where we are going and how to get there, that is good enough for me. I can’t see like you can. You guide and direct all my steps. I trust you to manage my future, to manage my schedule and all my daily activities according to your will and purposes which I know are always good. I trust in your wisdom, goodness and unfailing love for me – especially in moments like this, when I don’t understand your ways. I lay tomorrow at your feet. You alone Oh Lord make me dwell in safety. You have already numbered and measured all my days before one of them has came to be. You alone keep me and administer to me tomorrow one day at a time, one moment at a time. I will trust in you. ”
Let him who walks in darkness
and has no light
trust in the name of the LORD
and rely on his God.Isa. 50:10
