11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29: 11-13
God has had it all planned.
He had this miracle birth planned.
He had His time on earth planned.
He had the giving of the Holy Spirit planned when He left.
He has our time after we are done here on earth planned.
It has all been planned according to His purpose—and again, that purpose is to connect us to God once again. He loves us more than we love our own children, so giving us a way to be with Him is deeply important to God. Right now, He wants our hope to be in Him because He can handle it. Often we put our hopes in other people or even in ourselves, and we’ve all experienced those moments when both we and others fall short. Those moments are a powerful reminder of where our true Hope should be—in the One who makes the plan. And His plan is always for our good. We just have to trust that.
In John 18:36, when Jesus is being questioned by Pilate before He is ultimately sentenced to death, Jesus speaks with calm authority when He says, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, My followers would fight to keep Me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But My Kingdom is not of this world.” With that peace—knowing exactly what is about to happen to Him—and with everything He has done in His life to prove He is who He says He is, I choose to place my Hope in Him and not in this world.
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God, You are the planner. Not us. Thank you for that because our plans often fail, but Yours do not. You've planned it from the very beginning and within that plan, You created us. Not as a slave to do your work, but as Your children. You love us more than we can imagine and sometimes we repay that love by denying You and we are sorry for that. Turn us away from ourselves and this world so that we can have the peace you had before you were sentenced to death. Allow us to live today for You and we ask that You be with Your children who are lost so they come back home.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.