×

God’s Plans Trumping Our Preferences

     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. Jer. 29:11 (ESV)

      Heavenly Father, this well-known, oft-quoted verse both confronts us and comforts us. It confronts that part of us that wishes you would simply “sign-off” on the plans we make for ourselves.

     Our instinct is to make plans that include few surprises and negligible suffering; tons of familiarity and droves of comfort… and, therefore, very little need for faith and waiting. In essence, we’d love for you to be more of a Sugar Daddy than Abba Father. You are so kind and patient with us, your self-centered children.

     But in our heart of hearts, getting our way isn’t what we really prefer. In our most sand moments, we don’t really want you to be the clay and us the potter. We trust you and we love you, Father. You gave Jesus to us and for us. Of course we can trust you to give us everything else we actually need (Rom. 8:32).

     There are stretches when it seems like you answer our prayers with a disproportionate amount of “No’s” to “Yes’s”. Healing doesn’t come quick enough, and broken cars, appliances, and bills come too quickly. Instead of grace upon grace, sometimes life feels like disappointment upon disappointment. 

     Sometimes your plans include things that, in the moment, don’t really feel like they’re for our welfare at all. You call our favorite pastors, leaders, and bosses to new places; you send our kids to colleges, jobs, and marriages ten states away; you give us new neighbors that are loud, “messy,” and unfriendly, and take away the ones with whom we could connect, weep, and laugh.   

     And yet, Father, we know better. Hope is always the order of the day with you, always. We would always make the same plans you make if we knew what you know. So grant us fresh grace to wait upon you patiently and gratefully. Turn our whines into worship, our daily carping into carpe diem, and our frets into faith. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ beautiful and grace-full name. 

LOAD MORE
Loading