While many of us were counting down to 2010, making our new years resolutions and wondering what the new year would hold, there was someone who wasn't pondering the future. He knows exactly what lies in store for you and for me...for our nation and for the world. Jeremiah 29:11 is a well known verse, but many will find comfort in the words God spoke when he said, "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." (emphasis mine)
I have read this verse many times before, but what I saw differently that impacted me was "declares the Lord." I looked up the word "declare" online at Merriam-Webster.com and the first three definitions are listed as such: #1 : to make known formally, officially, or explicitly, #2 obsolete : to make clear and #3 : to make evident. I think God was, is trying to reassure us. He doesn't want us to worry (that is sin!) and he doesn't want us to even try and plan it all out. He KNOWS what the new year holds for each and everyone of us. And though he does not promise that the future will be full of ups and absent of downs he reminds us that his plans are "plans to prosper you and not to harm you." That means he will take all that lies ahead in your life and mine and bring it around to his purpose, to bring him glory and further refine you to be the woman he created you to be.
I am praying that 2010 will be full of blessings for my family and that the Lord will have mercy and grace upon us and his hand of protection from tragedy and pain in our lives. I prayed very special prayers just like that over my children on the night we watched the clock get closer to midnight, ushering in the new year. But I am fully aware that "...My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9) So I am choosing to trust in the process he takes me through, the process in which he takes my family through, to refine us into being the people who glorify Him in all that we say and do.
I pray that this is what you aspire for this new year. That amidst the resolutions and concerns you have for the future of your job or the future of our nation or whatever it is about the unknown that concerns you, you will remember that God has declared and given us assurance that He is in control and will be thinking of you as life's events unfold. Remember his plans are "...plans to give you hope and a future." I think we can all trust in that!
Happy New Year!
