A Preview of God’s Plan

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. —Jeremiah 29:11-13

God has a plan for your life. He has some objectives for you. But knowing that truth, it’s still easy to get stuck in the bottomless vortex of questions like: Who am I supposed to marry? Where am I going to live? What am I going to do for work? It’s time to set aside the questions and get back to what God has said.

His plans for you are not so much about those specifics as they are about developing your character. God knows that if He can get wisdom and righteousness into you, everything else will sort itself out.

God always has plans for the welfare and future of those who are His. He always has plans to give His children hope. Even in the middle of sad and sobering words of judgment, God poured out His heart for His people through the prophet Jeremiah. He pointed them (and us) toward relationship—the circumstances He allows are designed to cause us to call upon Him. We’re always able to respond, seek, and find Him because He wants us to respond, seek, and find Him!

When God says, “I know the plans I have for you,” His words are a great comfort. But wouldn’t you love to get a look at those plans? The tension isn’t, “Does God know?” The tension is, “I want to know!” Although God understands our questions, He never apologizes for saying I know, but I’m not going to let you know—until later.

He does give us hints, however. God provides us with some general categories that describe His purposes. First, they are plans for your welfare. The Hebrew word is shalom, meaning “the complete state of well-being; fulfillment; prosperity; peace.” As God looks down the telescope of time, His plans are for your total well-being.

His designs for you are not for evil. People who are determined to prove they can live contrary to God’s program will pay a price for their experiment. God’s plans take us away from evil; ours tend to take us smack into the middle of it.

God’s plans are also designed to give you a future and a hope, both immediately and eternally. The biblical definition of hope is a “confident expectation of something better tomorrow.” God will never have a problem delivering when your anticipation is based on His promises. It doesn’t matter what has happened, better things are coming. That is your real and living hope.

Reprinted with permission from Our Journey, copyright 2014 by James MacDonald. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from Walk in the Word. James is the Founding and Senior Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel in Rolling Meadow, IL and the Bible teacher of the Walk in the Word radio program.