"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

 

 

 

The verse above is a very familiar one to most disciples of Jesus Christ.

We quote it often.

Do we really and truly believe it though?

Or, do we sometimes think we are living in God's plan B, His back-up or contingency plans for our lives? 

I think sometimes we do.

We know His plans for us are good but we don't always live that way.

I think we are often thrown by the words 'prosper' and 'not to harm you'.

We often and only consider these words in light of our physical state.

That is a wrong approach because it turns our focus to the temporal and not the eternal.

God's plans for us - His good plans - take the eternal and spiritual approach.

The simple truth is that sometimes believers do not prosper in the material things we have come to value and the Bible is filled with examples of believers in the Book of Acts who were harmed physically.

That is not to say that God cannot and does not sometimes bless believers in those ways but to count on that to the exclusion of spiritual prosperity and protection is to miss the mark of the verse.

When what we determine others have greater prosperity or seem to go through life unharmed in any way (because of how we interpret those words) then we convince ourselves God has a plan for me but it is not as good as the plans He obviously has for others.  

This indirectly accuses God of being a respecter of persons which can erode our trust in our heavenly Father.

God's plans for you are good!

They are plans to prosper you and not to harm you!

But our perspective is not Gods'.

This scripture - even if we quote it a million times - does not remove from us the need to trust Him.

Joseph still had to trust even in the pit.

David still had to trust when King Saul was in hot pursuit.

Jesus showed us how to trust even when He hung on a tree.

Are you trusting your Heavenly Father's plans for you today?