God's Plan

"God's will is the best for me, though rarely the easiest."

- Philip Yancey

In Jeremiah 29:11, God declares one of his sweetest promises: “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” But he also prefaces this promise by telling his people to put down roots where they have been placed, to work with their circumstances, if you will, and to obediently and passionately seek him before he will fulfill their destiny.

So often we are sidetracked by plans and schemes. We believe we see a glimpse of what God’s bigger picture might be, and we rush to get a better view, or we sit around anxiously awaiting further revelation or tediously second-guessing every detail of our lives, and even the lives of those around us, to see if it is matching up with what we thought we saw.

Ultimately, we end up completely off-course and totally ineffective in our faith because everything is suddenly dependent on the “vision.” And like anything else that steals our passion for Christ Himself, it becomes an idol to us, an end unto itself, and we find that we cannot be satisfied or joyful unless that vision is realized.

God makes it clear in Jeremiah that he will be found by his people only when they want him above everything. Above whether they have good friends or walk alone, whether they and their families are healthy or in and out of the hospital, whether they have filet mignon on the table or white rice, whether their days are filled with laughter or tears, whether they can pay the mortgage or lose their house, whether they find employment or face layoffs, whether the church building is overflowing with people or it and the offering plate are empty.

He tells us that his plan requires a set amount of time to be prepared -- time which he alone can measure -- and he will show up in perfect time and “not a day before” (The Message). Yet, we are all to quick to grow impatient and incredulously demand that God show up on our schedule. We speak and pray as if it is possible to twist his arm if only we are emphatic enough.

We want gratification, release from the difficulties and disappointments of this life. We do not want to be holy. We want to be happy.

But this is distrust at its apex. To be uneasy unless God moves as we would like when we would like. This is certainly not the walk of faith lived by Christ as he surrendered moment by moment to the will of his Father even unto an unimaginably cruel death -- the antithesis of what he as the Son of God, the King of kings justly deserved.

And until we can live as Christ, able to weep but also to celebrate, acquainted with sorrow but a beacon of true joy, in utter submission to the Father . . . until we know that we are held in the very palm of his hand both today and forever despite the world seeming to crumble around us . . . until we can find rest and peace in his care and in his truth . . . we have no light to offer a dark and dying world. We have no hope to share with those who are perishing. For we ourselves are not walking in the light of Life.