Big, Big Plans


“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Are you a planner? I am. I like to have plans. The problem is that often as I begin to plan all the obstacles run through my mind. I begin to think of the myriad ways that my plans might go awry. If the event or issue is important to me that is when worry rears its ugly head.
This morning as I was feeling such joy.  I was living the truth of Psalm 118:24. This was indeed the day the Lord made and I was fully ready to rejoice and be glad. Understand this was an ordinary weekday involving work, household tasks, the usual. I was not headed off on a trip, a retreat or a date with my hubby, just a regular day. As I was preparing to leave the house I felt a catch in my joy. The nasty little thought came to me that something in this day was going to steal my joy; something was going to go wrong.  I could feel my mind searching for similar days when for no earthly reason I’ve felt on top of the world and known that it was simply the joy of being a child of the King and suddenly getting slammed. I did recall a season in my life where I would feel instant fear when I experienced that level of joy because I just knew something was coming to steal it.

Well not today! I stopped literally mid-step and turned around. I sat back down with the Lord for a minute and thought about this verse, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 Of course! Only God knows the plan, the exact plan that He has for us but the enemy knows the second half, that God plans to give His people hope and a future and he wants to take it away. Our enemy wants us to be so consumed with worry that we miss God’s plan entirely.
I am not arrogant enough or foolish enough or delusional enough to think that my plan can in any way compare to God’s plan. Whatever I have in mind, no matter how great, fun, exciting or fulfilling I may believe it to be pales in comparison to what my loving Father would plan for me.

Look at the verse. It says that God knows the plan. Again, the enemy does not but it is in his nasty little mind that our doubts, fears and worries are born. Satan wants us to fixate on what can go wrong. He loves the rabbit hole of the negative what ifs. He’s a fan of the vague sense of unease that the joy of the Lord can’t last. He is so wrong.
Not only does God have plans for us but they are great plans. So superior to anything we can think or imagine. That reminds me my former student, Jon, who used to make “big, big plans” for his “big day off.”  His plans were rarely as good as what his incredibly amazing mom would plan for him. He might plan to sleep in and watch a movie only to find out that she was taking him somewhere fabulous or had arranged a day with his friends. I know Jon well enough to know that if his mom had said, “no, you aren’t doing what you have planned,” he would have been so mad. She didn’t tell him, ever. She let him plan and then surprised him with something better but because he was secure in her love for him, Jon always knew his “big day off” was going to be great.

I love to plan and daydream about those plans but I am more than happy to let God change those plans because I know His way is better than mine. Yet, I am as guilty as the next person of heeding the ugly little voice that makes me doubt God’s goodness. It works because it’s sneaky. My thought isn’t God doesn’t want me to be happy. My thought is what if something goes wrong? Things do go “wrong” sometimes, at least to our way of thinking but that is because our thoughts are not God’s thoughts.
Oh and today? Today was a beautiful day, nothing special or out of the ordinary. It was simply a day in which I lived secure in the love of my Father. It is evening now and my joy remains. Nothing came to steal or even threaten it and I believe it is because I kept my eyes on my Savior, on the One who has plans for me, big, big plans.

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