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Plans

           For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

          This is another of those verses we need to keep coming back to. Some verses we treasure because we like them. While we may like these, we need to remember them because we’re too apt to forget them or to tell ourselves stories about them that aren’t true.

          First, foremost, and once again, God’s idea of prosperity isn’t ours. These verses aren’t about our having unlimited funds in the bank and no bills. He is our prosperity. He is our future and our hope. He causes things to work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose. We can fear no evil because He is with us, not because we aren’t in the valley of the shadow of death.

          Secondly, we tend to seek Him most and hardest when things aren’t going well. Would we really pay attention to “I know the plans I have for you, plans for prosperity and not for disaster, or to “we know God causes all things to work together for good” or “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death” if we were enjoying “the life?” It’s when things aren’t going well that we want to hear that things are going to work out.

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