Happy is the person who trusts the Lord, who doesn't turn to those who are proud or to those who worship false gods.
Lord, my God, You have done many miracles. Your plans for us are many. If I tried to tell them all, there would be too many to count. (vs. 4-5)
"I know what I am planning for you," says the Lord. "I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. Then you will call My name. You will come to Me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will search for Me. And when you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me! I will let you find Me." God (Jeremiah 9)
If you have lived long enough as a Christian, you know the difference between trusting in Him and in looking elsewhere for help. You have seen the Lord do miracles that only He could have done, and usually they are accomplished in a counterintuitive way you could not have imagined. Learning to trust the Lord is like learning to walk. One step at a time. Do you remember how lovingly the Lord answered your prayers when you were a baby Christian? When everything was new and you were learning your way in your relationship with Him? I do.
I call this the A-B-C's. ( Because I am so clever.) God allows a situation, A, in our lives. It requires either trust or another option of our own choosing. Like all faith does. An early A for me was my first teaching job. My student teaching experience was so successful that I had as my references for a job in the same district the superintendent of schools and the media director. I did not even apply elsewhere because I knew the job was a shoe-in. Not so much. The assistant superintendent of schools was the one doing the hiring, and he had a beef with the teacher who was my mentor. I was a no-hire. The superintendent told me this with tears in his eyes. I went home and fell apart. Got a job as a secretary and prayed with Bill about what to do next. Trust. That there was a job out there for me. Met a young woman at the office who lived in small town called Red Oak, a suburb of Dallas. They needed a teacher. I needed to teach. And God had so much more for me there than I could have imagined. An entire high school full of kids who needed Jesus and a new best friend who needed Him, too. Jesus was not much interested in my innate ability to transfer Shakespeare. He was thinking bigger. Plan A. My God was bigger.
Plan B. It is somewhat easier to trust because Plan A went so well. But it is tougher. My mother has cancer. In her colon. It is not healed. I don't understand. Trust.
Plan C. My father is arrested in a park while molesting a child. I blow Plan C. That is when I understand we should not turn to those who are proud or to those who become false idols.
Back to Plan B. Mother goes home. She could not have lived in the mess Plan C created. I see her face from heaven glowing and awash with peace. It is a good plan for her, though I would have had her near me longer.
Plan C. I am wiser. The miracle God works in me is mercy. Greater grace than I could have ever imagined. Love that rescues and conquers. An understanding of why people do what they do in their pain. A heart that cannot judge because it "gets it."
These may seem like downers to others. But in the scheme of things this is how our lives go. Will we be "steadfast, immovable" when we are given opportunities to trust Him? First in the small things, then in the challenges in life that would bring us to our end without Him. Sometimes circumstances make it necessary to "search for Him" in them. Where is God in this? Seek with all your heart for His purposes and will in the hard places. He will let you find Him.
Lord, my God, You have done many miracles. Your plans for us are many. If I tried to tell them all, there would be too many to count. (vs. 4-5)
"I know what I am planning for you," says the Lord. "I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. Then you will call My name. You will come to Me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will search for Me. And when you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me! I will let you find Me." God (Jeremiah 9)
If you have lived long enough as a Christian, you know the difference between trusting in Him and in looking elsewhere for help. You have seen the Lord do miracles that only He could have done, and usually they are accomplished in a counterintuitive way you could not have imagined. Learning to trust the Lord is like learning to walk. One step at a time. Do you remember how lovingly the Lord answered your prayers when you were a baby Christian? When everything was new and you were learning your way in your relationship with Him? I do.
I call this the A-B-C's. ( Because I am so clever.) God allows a situation, A, in our lives. It requires either trust or another option of our own choosing. Like all faith does. An early A for me was my first teaching job. My student teaching experience was so successful that I had as my references for a job in the same district the superintendent of schools and the media director. I did not even apply elsewhere because I knew the job was a shoe-in. Not so much. The assistant superintendent of schools was the one doing the hiring, and he had a beef with the teacher who was my mentor. I was a no-hire. The superintendent told me this with tears in his eyes. I went home and fell apart. Got a job as a secretary and prayed with Bill about what to do next. Trust. That there was a job out there for me. Met a young woman at the office who lived in small town called Red Oak, a suburb of Dallas. They needed a teacher. I needed to teach. And God had so much more for me there than I could have imagined. An entire high school full of kids who needed Jesus and a new best friend who needed Him, too. Jesus was not much interested in my innate ability to transfer Shakespeare. He was thinking bigger. Plan A. My God was bigger.
Plan B. It is somewhat easier to trust because Plan A went so well. But it is tougher. My mother has cancer. In her colon. It is not healed. I don't understand. Trust.
Plan C. My father is arrested in a park while molesting a child. I blow Plan C. That is when I understand we should not turn to those who are proud or to those who become false idols.
Back to Plan B. Mother goes home. She could not have lived in the mess Plan C created. I see her face from heaven glowing and awash with peace. It is a good plan for her, though I would have had her near me longer.
Plan C. I am wiser. The miracle God works in me is mercy. Greater grace than I could have ever imagined. Love that rescues and conquers. An understanding of why people do what they do in their pain. A heart that cannot judge because it "gets it."
These may seem like downers to others. But in the scheme of things this is how our lives go. Will we be "steadfast, immovable" when we are given opportunities to trust Him? First in the small things, then in the challenges in life that would bring us to our end without Him. Sometimes circumstances make it necessary to "search for Him" in them. Where is God in this? Seek with all your heart for His purposes and will in the hard places. He will let you find Him.
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