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The Plans He Has For Us


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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)
I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1-2)

           This is another of those passages that we read and respond, “Oh boy! Wealth, power, fame, fortune, good luck!” After all, God plans to prosper me. He wants me to have hope! And then life happens. Two months without a washer, a test result that says “cancer,” the black of depression settles over your mind, all the kids get in trouble at school In different incidents, you know, life. How do we respond? Oh, there might be some prayer involved, but we research new washing machines, read about cancer treatments, find yet another self-help book and several more books on parenting. 
       Where do we look when we need help? God? God and…? Maybe just the “and…?” The Jews ascending to Jerusalem felt the same draws. In the hills around them, people worshipped pagan gods. In the hills were temples and high places where prostitutes were available to help remind the gods about what they should be doing. Yes, even then sex ruled as a solution to every problem.
         Of course, we have other gods in our hills. Self-help gurus take in nearly a billion dollars per year. Some of us turn to science. Some to religion. Some to psychologists and psychiatrists. Others turn to the government or to Beverly Hills. There seems no end to the places we will turn for help. And turn, and turn, and turn, in hopes that one of them will do what God seems unwilling to do: to make everything all better in accordance with our plans, which means in less than a day. 
         But that’s not the way giving someone a hope works. Hope isn’t about instantly getting what we want or need. Hope is about the space between the recognition of a need and the resolution. It’s about waiting. Perhaps more importantly, God’s ideas about prospering a person differ from ours. For God, the most valuable thing He can give isn’t gold or diamonds. It is Himself. That is why we need to learn to seek him and find him by seeing him with all our hearts.

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