Jeremiah 29:11 - Gods Plans For Us Are Good; Giving Us Hope And A Future.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) 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.
COMMENTARY PEARL
Today is the perfect time to look ahead
and think about what I want to accomplish in the
upcoming year: new goals and dreams, healthier
habits, new activities. I pull the old calendar
that's full off the wall to make room for the new
empty calendar. Today is also a good time to clear
space in my heart and mind to make room for the
new ways God wants to work in my life.
First, I take inventory of what I might
need to let go. Do I need to kick my habit of
worry to make room for more prayer time with
Jesus? Am I completely ready to release my regret
over past mistakes to clear space for the joy of
abiding in His love and forgiveness? Can I replace
the fears that hold me back with greater courage
and boldness in serving Him?
No matter how insignificant I feel, Jesus
has plans for my new year. Big plans. Maybe not
big in the world's eyes, like winning a lottery.
Rather His plans - serving Jesus in new ways,
understanding His Word more deeply, knowing Jesus more
intimately - are big because they have eternal value.
As I celebrate the eve of a new year, I trust
in His exciting hope-filled plans for me.
Dianne Neal Matthews
Faith Step: Today ask Jesus to help you
make two lists: "Out with the Old" and "In with
the New." On your new calendar, jot down a word
or phrase for each month related to something
Jesus wants to build in your life. [Mornings With
Jesus 2022 Devotional by Guideposts and
Zondervan]
ILLUSTRATION
I was seventeen the first time I visited
New York City, hitchhiking one summer from
Michigan with a schoolmate after promising our
parents we'd take a bus. My first impression was
mixed.
I was overwhelmed - not unpleasantly so -
by the sheer intensity of New York, its
relentless energy and teeming humanity, its crowds and
traffic. My friend had lived in Manhattan previously,
and he took me on the roaring subway speeding
under neighborhood after neighborhood, to Central
Park and Morningside Heights, to St. Patrick's
Cathedral. He introduced me to Patience and Fortitude,
the proud stone lions who guard the entrance to
the New York Public Library, a veritable
cathedral in its own right. My neck was cricked from
gazing up at the soaring glass and steel office
towers lining Third Avenue.
It was like walking onto a movie set, a
great, sweeping Hollywood epic about a living,
breathing metropolis. The undisputed center of the
world. Maybe this is why there was a nagging
unreality about New York to my young, suburbanite
eyes. Where were the two-car garages? The rolling
lawns? The Weber grills? The backyard swing sets?
That night, trying to fall asleep amid the
cacophony of bleating taxis twenty floors below, I
asked, How can people actually live here?
Fifteen years after that first visit I
found myself working in one of those skyscrapers
on Third Avenue writing for a magazine I'd
barely heard of called Guideposts and living in
Manhattan. I've lived here ever since, way longer than
I have lived anywhere else. New York is not
just where I live, it is home, both to my family
and my work.
God has a way of showing you where He
wants you to be. I never dreamed at seventeen that
my future was being revealed to me.
God, thank You for planting us where we
are meant to grow. Edward Grinnan [Walking in
Grace 2021 Devotional by Guideposts and
Zondervan]
LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY
Jeremiah 29:11 - God's Plans For Us Are
Good; Giving Us Hope And A Future:
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2020/20200716-0903.html
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2013/20131104-1716.html
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2008/20081020-1229.html
YOUR COMMENTS
If anyone has a paraphrase, commentary or
testimony on this passage of Scripture, either
personal or otherwise, I would be interested in
hearing from you. Thanks in advance and let's keep
uplifting Jesus that all might be drawn to Him. Fred
Gibbs
LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
https://abible.com/links/
