Tag Archives: God’s plan for you

Looking into your future

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Would you like to see what your future holds? Are you eager to know the answers to your prayers and the course your life will take? The fact that we have dreams and ambitions and make plans for the future indicates we’re very invested in our future. It’s why we work to accomplish goals, save money for a future need or desire, raise children, invest in friends, care for the earth, and help strangers in need. If our future and that of our loved ones on earth is so dear to us, how much more should we long for our life in heaven when all things are made new?

We live in this present age but are closer than we think to the next era of our life, heaven. As we’ve been unpacking what the bible actually has to say about heaven we’ve learned the answers to many of our questions about our future. When believers in Jesus die, our bodies go to the ground but our souls and spirits are immediately with God in heaven. Heaven is described as an amazing place where we will interact with those who’ve gone before us and with Jesus himself. Can you imagine? But at the same time, our loved ones remain on earth until they die or until they are “raptured”  to heaven by Jesus. Work for peace, but understand there will be great sorrow on earth as plagues, cataclysmic disasters, and wars abound. The good news is that God wins and we win with him. Christ himself will reign on earth for 1000 years and those who trusted him during the end times will enjoy his favor. At the end of this time Satan will be allowed once again to have influence for a short while on earth and some will choose to follow him. Can you believe it? God will pass judgment on everyone according to what he has chosen to believe and follow. And then, the city of Jerusalem, the new heaven, will descend upon the new earth. That is when God will “wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

Hasn’t this been God’s plan from the very beginning? To redeem his people and restore them to perfect fellowship with him, and to restore his created earth to its original design? God’s plan is to make all things new in your life now and forever.  He offers complete and everlasting redemption for all who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, those “adopted” children who will gain the full inheritance of his blessings, the same ones he wants you to enjoy forever. And some of those blessings are for now. They’re “hidden” in plain sight for all who look for them. They’re found by being still before God, by listening for his voice which speaks through his Word, the bible. They’re found in making time for others and attending to their needs. They’re found by a heart that increasing learns to be thankful and content. And sometimes, the most profound blessings are hidden in the deepest sorrows of our lives, for it’s there we’re most open to seeing God’s sustaining grace at work in us. For this reason, we shouldn’t be too quick to pray away sorrow without first finding what God has for us in it. What blessings are hidden by your busy schedule today? I hope you find them.

If you trust fully in Jesus, your eternal future is one of redemption and restoration, all things made new and good. But don’t miss out on the redemptive power of Jesus to work miracles in your life right now. Today is the day to allow him to make you one who is not overcome by trouble but is instead an overcomer, through the power of his Spirit in you.

 

Live fully. Live well, my friends.

 

 

Waiting

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What do you do when you have to wait? We’ve grown accustomed to instant food, instant access, and instant gratification of nearly everything we want. We live in a “let’s get on with it” world that seems increasingly uncomfortable with silence and mindful inactivity. But waiting provides opportunities for us to GROW and to GLOW (go light our world):
Waiting at a stop light – pray for your fellow travelers. (Keep your eyes open so you don’t irritate them by missing the green light.:-))
Waiting in the checkout line – encourage a stranger in line with you. Share God’s love.
Waiting for someone to show up – pray for them. Ask for God’s discernment about your role in the meeting.
Waiting for an answer to prayer – carve out time to be quiet each day to pray and to listen to what God’s Word says. Say out loud the things for which you already are thankful.

 

God has a plan for us whereEVER we are, even in the Waiting Room of life. While you wait for a new mission, God has a mission for you right now, right where you are. David waited 14 years between being anointed as king and serving as king. Paul also waited 14 years between conversion and his first missionary journey. Moses of course waited even longer. Do you think they sat on the porch of life and twiddled their thumbs while they waited? No, and neither should we if we really want to seek God’s best in our lives.

 

God has a plan for each of us while we wait, actually three plans: to PROTECT us, to PREPARE us, and to PROVIDE for us. He protects us by keeping us from rushing into something that may be dangerous for us. He uses times of waiting which often seem like trials, to better prepare our hearts and to equip us for the next part of our journey. And He uses times of waiting to provide for us by ministering to our bodies, our minds, and our soul.

 

It has been two and a half years since we heard God’s call to serve Him in South America. Then leukemia came. During this time of waiting, He continues to remind us that we have a mission here, even though not completely revealed. But as we wait also for that we know His constant mission for each of us is to have us draw ever closer to Him, in dependence and in surrender. Always, we continue to learn what it means to really behave like a “new creation” in Christ. The answer is always found in submitting our will to the Holy Spirit and responding to that part of the mission that is clearly revealed.

In the still quiet moments of your day, ask him to reveal more of His nature to you. Draw closer to Him and submit your agenda for His, renewing your mind with His Spirit. Then receive His will for you, His good, perfect pleasing, and perfect will. . . Even as you wait.