Jeremiah 29:11
“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.”
Summer.
School is out. Even for those of us who are working Moms summer offers a respite. Somehow, those hours we couldn’t capture during the year are waiting for us here in the longer, light filled days.
Summer is the time we find for planning vacations, beach excursions, picnics. We get with friends and family more frequently. Summer plans are just that much more fun. Maybe it’s that our lives are filled with less stress so the load we carry across our shoulders day to day is that much lighter. Frees our spirit to enjoy each day a bit more.
Whatever it is, summer is good for us. We look forward in anticipation to summer.
Summer is like that special friend. The one that always brings with her something good which more often than not is just her spirit walking in the door hand in hand with your smile. The friend that when she it makes no difference what or where – the time together is good.
The being together fetches joy. The afterglow filled with memories that beckon a smile to our face even months after.
Here is what we know about that friend she
- knows us inside
- loves us even after she knows that us that is inside
- loves us even more because she knows that us that is inside
- wants what is best for us
- wants us to be happy
- wants us to be well in the core of our souls
- is funny, well that is an added plus, even if we’re the only 2 humans that think so.
If we are blessed in this life to know that type of human friend, we understand the gift she is. We know she is a blessing, a tiny piece of heaven sent down in her laughter to fortify us until we make it home. We know how fortunate we are to have found that friend.
Those blessed to have a friend have no excuse; to know that bond of friendship in this life makes us accountable. To know real friendship beckons us to contemplate how much more should we appreciate what a friend we can have in Jesus?
No matter how much we love that friend of ours. She is human. She is human and she’s also spectacular. We know she makes mistakes; we love her anyway. Exactly as she still loves us in all of our miserable fails and missteps.
How much greater could our friendship be with Jesus in His perfection and His perfect love. We would never ask our best friend to die for us, yet that’s just what our very Best Friend did. He loves us. God is many things; He is also our friend.
We have been speaking of promises of God over the past few weeks. The If / Then equation, if we do this (fill in the blank here) then God will do this (fill in the Biblical promise here). His promises to us found in Psalms and throughout the rest of the Bible.
In addition to those If / Then promises, God also has plans for us. He has those best friend kind of plans that are all good. Just for us. Specifically for us. Plans to help us, plans to make us successful, plans to bring us happiness overflowing. He’s waiting for us to ask him for help. He’s waiting to lay out his plans. We run right past him. We run in circles around Him with tears of frustration streaming down our face. Desperate we sprint right by Him empty of resources. Our hope running dry. We run when we could just stop, be still and have faith.
This is all flowery and nice and you can hit delete and move on. Rushing past. Would you pay more attention if we got specific? What would it mean to you if you could check out God’s individual playbook. The one with your name on it? How about:
- He has plans to heal my marriage
- He has plans to heal my relationship with my (sister/brother/colleague/mom)
- He has plans to help me find a better (job/different doctor/house/apartment/whatever)
- He has plans to help ease my (sadness /loneliness / hurting / pain / depression)
- He has plans to use my (sadness / loneliness / emptiness / hurting / illness / depression) to help someone else going through the same things
- He has plans to turn all of this badness into good so it makes an eternal difference, so it makes it worth it
You can check out your playbook. It’s in your heart. It’s in His word. It’s in His message relayed through His flock.
Where are you hearing His message? Are you hearing it at all? That’s a good first step.
He has plans for us, specifically for us.
There are more than 600 prophecies in the Bible related to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, his life and death on the cross. That took some planning. He didn’t haphazardly arrive and just do His own thing for a while waiting to die. He planned our salvation from before there was sin. He knew Adam & Eve would sin and He know their redemption and what free will would cost Him.
Our God is a good @ planning. Way better than we can ever be. God has been taking me through a barren time in my life. A time where friendship has been quiet, while I see all of the dark clouds circling and the storms prepare to let loose in the sky over me and people I love. God is trying to teach me something in this time of sparseness. Maybe it’s that all the planning, preparing and cultivating of friendships fall behind the One I should be drawing nearest to, my Friend with the Master Plan.
“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.”
purelyjoyous living 