Snowed In?!
What crosses your mind when we look outside and see all of this white stuff on the ground? Do you think about driving? Do you think about sledding? Do you think about summer? What is your first thought when you see the weather report and they say a storm is coming? Do you prepare? Do you start making plans to get through it? When I was younger, I was a member of the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared”. That was always something that my family did, we would plan for the worst and hope for the best. While that may sound like good advice, it doesn’t really work well in your walk of Faith. You can’t “plan” to be tempted; you can’t “plan” for tribulation. You might think you are prepared for whatever comes your way, but are you really? You never know how you will react to a situation until you are in that situation. God on the other hand, He sees how you are going to react and how the situation ends before we even see it begin. His plan is what gets us prepared! Jeremiah 29-11,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
The best way for us to “prepare” is to follow. Let’s break this down a little.
“For I know the plans I have for you.”
God has planned a path for us. He knows what He wants us to do, but we have a choice. Our choice to follow Him will determine if we are walking in His plan for us. When the Lord says “…for you” at the end of that line, it is an invitation to join Him. It isn’t an order to follow or a command. You have a choice; God is just letting you know He has a plan if you want to follow it.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster,”
God does not want to harm you; He doesn’t sit on the throne in heaven and think of ways to punish us. He wants us to succeed, and we can count on it to be good! The kind of good that will glorify God!
“to give you a future and a hope.”
Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. When we choose to accept the future that God has for us, it allows us to feel that feeling of expectation for the good that God has for us. Remember God has good things for us, so lets always do good for God!
Pastor Rick