Hope In God’s Plans!
Do ordinary routines brighten your day, or do you schlep a lead-weight dread spirit everywhere you go? Allow me to help you learn how to shed the dread and live lighter, happier lives from this day forward. I offer you this truth found in Isaiah 55:10-11 of the King James Bible. “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
What an exciting, wonderful, life-altering, blessed assurance from God in which to anchor our hope! I cling to that scripture with all my hope in the Lord. My life is happy and worry-free because my peace, my joy, and my hope are rooted in God’s word. Is my life perfect? Not yet, but I have hope in Him that it will be.
For starters, you must believe the entire Bible. It’s okay to have favorite scriptures, but consider the fullness of the blessings you miss out on by not reading other scriptures in addition to the ones you hold near and dear to your heart. Secondly, you can’t expect your plans to supersede God’s plans for your life, especially if your plans contradict His. Thirdly, hope is what drives now-faith. In other words, whatever you’re hoping for in life, believing that you have it, even when you can’t touch or see it, is what now-faith is.
We can’t afford to let go of hope. Hebrews 11:1 teaches, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” Now-faith is the fuel that transfers our hopes out of the unseen, intangible realm over into the tangible, visible realm and our lives!
May I remind you of the power of your tongue? May I remind you of what Jesus taught in Luke 6:45? He said, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
Now-faith empowers us to believe that we receive that which we hope to have when we pray to God in agreement with God’s word. So, I encourage you to read your Bible. You can’t pray in alignment with the word of God if you don’t know what the word of God says.
Believe the word of God because His word is the truth of life. Seeking God with our hearts and obeying His Word is the master key to true success. By now, especially at this stage of life, we’ve learned a thing or two from our mistakes. And if there’s one thing we should have learned from past mistakes is that God forgives and directs us away from them. He directs us away from making poor choices and leads us toward making good choices and improvements. Something else to realize is that God is a reciprocating God. Jeremiah 29:11-13 proves this in a declaration God made about Himself.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
In this passage, God is telling us His heart’s desire for us. He doesn’t want us to just come to Him when life is hard or when we want something from Him. Jesus taught this: “for your Father knoweth what things ye need of before ye ask him” in Matthew 6:8. This means to ask God to execute His will; to proceed with His agenda instead of our own.
Doesn’t it make sense why the desires of our hearts are placed there by God? He enables us to desire for ourselves the things that He desires for us to have. Therefore, when we hope to receive good things from God, we must believe by faith that we have them before God sends His good things into our lives.
Readers, God’s plans are far better than ours. His plans never fail because they are His thoughts and His ways. His thoughts and ways are full of wisdom, love, happiness, and much more than we could ever imagine. Paul teaches it this way: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” This truth proves why many prayers go unanswered. Do you love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength before, during, and after you pray?
Lastly, God examines our hearts. Don’t forget, He is the One who wrote our pre-destined plan. Therefore, it is wise to anchor our hopes in His plans. What are God’s plans? Discover them and know.
Rejoice, believers! Christ’s return is fast approaching! We have the blessed hope of rising out of our graves when the Lord calls us to “Come forth.” Our resurrection is the ultimate expected end; one that no man can design, create or sell for profit. This is another solid reason for anchoring our faith and hopes in God’s plans.
