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29:11

             Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. (I Chronicles 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. (Jeremiah 29:11)

I need both these verses this morning. The throw away reason for needing them is that they’re both “29:11” and that amuses me.

The real reason we all need these verses takes us back to yesterday’s blog and our tendency to not respond well to problem – real or imagined. One of the good things about problems is that we can learn from them. Last time this problem came up, we did this, and it helped, or didn’t. So this time, we either will or won’t do this. The Israelites didn’t review what they did last time they had a problem that worked. They went back to what they’d done as slaves in Egypt: grumbling. It hadn’t helped, but that was the habit. The ten plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea weren’t on the radar. What would have changed if the people had remembered?

I’ve said before that when we’re hurt, our universe shrinks down to the size and shape of our pain and/or its cause. Yesterday’s passage is an example. This morning, my universe is shrinking down to the size and shape of my failure to accomplish all I want to (8 hours of activity pressed into a 2.5 hour timeslot and my next story plotted, the world built, and my characters thoroughly documented by Saturday evening. Unrealistic in the extreme, but I’m so in the habit of stress, anxiety, and worry that I’m not sure how to not do it.

Except, these verses suggest good answers: praise and trust, and remembering what God as done, and what He has promised to do.

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