Planner
" 'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the LORD. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.' " (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT)
God's plans are always forward-facing.
"The plans I HAVE for you," God says in Jeremiah 29:11. "Have," not had.
The very word "plans" points ahead; we don't make plans for yesterday.
"Hope." This, too, looks forward; we don't hope in what has already happened. We might hope it has some outcome, but that result will lie in the future—the "future" being exactly what God says He plans to give us.
Yet while we're waiting on God's plans to unfold, there is (to state the obvious) the waiting. Sometimes this feels like when we're stuck at a standstill on the highway, with no obvious cause and for no obvious reason. How many times, once we're finally moving again, do we see nothing up ahead to explain the slowdown? Or we see some minor incident like a barely disabled car just off on the shoulder? The delay seems to have been nothing but a waste.
God's pauses, though, always have a purpose.
"Hope." This, too, looks forward; we don't hope in what has already happened. We might hope it has some outcome, but that result will lie in the future—the "future" being exactly what God says He plans to give us.
Yet while we're waiting on God's plans to unfold, there is (to state the obvious) the waiting. Sometimes this feels like when we're stuck at a standstill on the highway, with no obvious cause and for no obvious reason. How many times, once we're finally moving again, do we see nothing up ahead to explain the slowdown? Or we see some minor incident like a barely disabled car just off on the shoulder? The delay seems to have been nothing but a waste.
God's pauses, though, always have a purpose.
God's holds never hinder; they always help.
Lazarus was on hold to be resurrected...which helped the power and glory of God to be more fully on display and many people to come to faith.
Elizabeth was on hold to have the baby she longed for...which helped her be in a position to comfort her cousin Mary when the teenager's world had been turned upside down.
I was on hold to meet my future spouse after the man I thought I was going to marry broke my heart...which helped me meet the man who would capture and protect it forever.
With the clarity of hindsight, we can see so many examples in God's Word and in our own stories of holding patterns God used to help and not hinder. But sometimes, our vision is not so clear. Sometimes, we're on-hold in a way that never seems to end. Sometimes, we start moving again and find ourselves wondering, as if in that traffic slowdown, what the wait was for.
Lazarus was on hold to be resurrected...which helped the power and glory of God to be more fully on display and many people to come to faith.
Elizabeth was on hold to have the baby she longed for...which helped her be in a position to comfort her cousin Mary when the teenager's world had been turned upside down.
I was on hold to meet my future spouse after the man I thought I was going to marry broke my heart...which helped me meet the man who would capture and protect it forever.
With the clarity of hindsight, we can see so many examples in God's Word and in our own stories of holding patterns God used to help and not hinder. But sometimes, our vision is not so clear. Sometimes, we're on-hold in a way that never seems to end. Sometimes, we start moving again and find ourselves wondering, as if in that traffic slowdown, what the wait was for.
These are the testing places of faith. God must be good and loving and wise and compassionate when we either don't see what He's doing or don't like what we do see—or He is not truly any of those things at all. And He is all those things (and infinitely more), so in these pauses that seem to have no purpose, we make our choice: to stay on God's road or try some detour of our own. I've taken unmarked detours before. They usually lead to bumpy back roads that eventually dead-end.
Oh, Master Planner, help us to stay on Your path...one that fully faces a future and a hope.
Oh, Master Planner, help us to stay on Your path...one that fully faces a future and a hope.
This post reminds me of the Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers!
ReplyDeleteYES, I can absolutely see that! :) Thank you so much for stopping by, and may the Master Planner bless and keep you!
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