The Plan of the Lord!

‘“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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”’ – Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV

The context of Jeremiah 29:11-13 is that God is speaking to Israelites about their exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. However, these bible verses are being misused around the culture today. These bible verse are great encouragement from the Lord to all of us, especially to those of us who comprehend what the Lord is trying to say in those verses. We might believe that Jeremiah 29:11-13 would mean that God wants us to get incredibly rich so that we are able to live comfortable lives until the end of the age. In addition, we think Jeremiah 29:11-13 are based on God’s incredible love to all of us. If we understand these verses in this way, we misunderstand them and do not look the right picture in what God is trying to say through them. We will eventually going to create idols, instead of worshipping God until the end of the age.

Indeed, God is still loving us so much, even though we sin and have fallen down. The way that He said that He is going to prosper us is not through worldly wisdom, but through God’s wisdom. He wants us to be rich in Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus became poor, in order to make us rich in Him (2 Corinthians 8:9) The way we get rich in Christ is through faith. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) God also wants us to rely everything on Him rather than relying on ourselves (Proverbs 3:5-8). The main reason for these are that God’s way is the righteous path to all of us (Romans 8:28). This is the exact reason that God has poured His Spirit into us, so that His Spirit is able to guide us to walk with the Lord until the end of the age (John 14:15-27). God may harm us physically and mentally when He wants to discipline us through His Spirit (Hebrews 12:4-12). There are several times that God has disciplined me through His Spirit but the one that I remember the most is through theological mind-set. I felt that I needed to remove the burden of theological mind-set of mine so I downloaded a game and I simply prayed before Him. After these, the burden was completely removed away, so I was relived. However, after a while, I had to remove the game from my laptop, due to the fact that my passion and heart was not really centered on Jesus Christ. Hence, I think that God was disciplining me to pray more often. This is because I have been trying to get the knowledge of God as much as I can through writing devotionals and reading the online devotionals and the word of God. Because of these, I did not really not have time to pray. Thus, I should my schedule, due to the fact that prayer is the one of most important things to have within our spiritual life, as prayer is the best way to have conversation with God (Philippians 4:4-7). Furthermore, I think perseverance is required to become a pray-warrior as prayer often makes us tired in a way. I used to literally be a pray-warrior, that I loved persevering when I am tired and I slept around 2am. I start to love perseverance during my praying time but I need to manage my time correctly.

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:6-10)

Usually when the Spirit of God is powerfully working within me, I love to pray before God. My prayer for devotional-writing is that what I write about really affects me as well as others for the kingdom and the glory of God. Psalm 145:18-19 states, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.” I feel like I really should write a prayer for me and you at the end of my devotionals. However, since the Lord is not calling me to write a prayer for you guys at the end, I am just going to pray afterwards, even though I love intercessory prayers. Otherwise, devotional-prayer may become a religious routine and I might become like a hypocrite (Matthew 6:5-8).

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. (Ephesians 6:18)

Seeking and finding God in Jeremiah 29:13 probably means to find God’s will through the Spirit of God. I know that Christian-writing, such as devotional-writing, is the will of God for me because I often sense the Spirit’s empowerment within me to write devotionals for others. Because of this, I want to be a Christian Writer. I love the word of God so much, that I desperately want to fully explain them to others. Thus, others are able to read and understand what the word of God really means as the Spirit of God may lead and convict them. However, I really should manage my time correctly, even though I may have to change my daily devotionals into my weekly ones, because of school. When I have meetings or gatherings to go to in evenings, I feel that it is right to stay at home to keep writing my devotionals and finish them up. This is because Luke 14:26-27 is telling me that we have to love the will of God so much, that nothing else should matter to us. I have desire to do so. Nevertheless, at the same time, I want to go to meetings and gatherings as well. The main reason for this that Christians are not able to do their spiritual lives on their own. “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function,so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:4-5)  Furthermore, I should sleep early and wake up early when I go to the school as well as to write weekly devotionals. In addition, I am trying to find God’s will for me when I go to Unitec, other than just getting my permanent residency. Maybe it is about evangelism?

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. (Titus 3:3-8)