The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands. – Psalm 138:8
Plans and purposes. They seems to go hand-in-hand. Each plan that is put in place has a purpose, and there is usually a purpose behind each plan. However, not all plans live up to their purpose, and we all know that plans change.
One of the often quoted Scriptures to reassure us of plans, is form Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you, ‘declares the Lord,’ plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” While reassuring most of the time, this year has been very troubling. In this year of 2020, that we will one day look back in hindsight, and say it was as perfectly clear. We have found this is the year of cancellations, the year of changed plans, the year of deciding what’s the best plan, and here in the middle of it, I admit I just sit confused.
This past week as school systems released plans of children to return to learning, decisions had to be made about between plans that will allow in-person, or choices to make arrangements for students to learn at home. However, within these plans there is the possibility that all students will need to learn at home. We have made plans for church to reopen, but that plan changed as well, we don’t yet know when it will change back.
We plan and prepare, not knowing what each day will bring, however our purpose is still secure.
When we read the praise of Psalm 138 we find that when we give over our plans to God, our purpose in life is to simply live and praise in His presence. We do walk though trouble, but our purpose to live in the steadfast love of God has not gone away. If this, I find that maybe the translators should have seen more “purpose” than “plan” in the book of Jeremiah. For during that troubling time, Jeremiah’s time, the people of God fell to the attacks of Babylon, and where exiled from their homeland, enslaved to another. However, God continued to work his purposes through those who remained faithful.
In the same way, we may live in a time of ever-changing, ever-cancelling plans, but if we live into God’s purpose, we will prosper, and we will be assured of a future full of blessings and hope.
Grace & Peace,
Sam