Change of Plans: How God Works by Changing Our Plans
As we come to the end of this month of focus on setting goals and making plans, I want to encourage you that even when things don’t go as planned, God is at work redeeming us and his cosmos. Enjoy this excerpt from The Waiting Room: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in a Health Crisis.
‘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.’ Jeremiah 29:11, NLT
- I was planning to write a devotional or perhaps a book on how to keep a prayer journal.
- Our son was planning to move to Ithaca, NY to begin a master’s program in vocal performance.
- My husband and I were planning to travel to New York City to celebrate our 35th
Before the CT that changed everything, we had plans, and they weren’t bad plans. But God had something different in mind. There is nothing like a health crisis to redirect our attention from our plans for life on this earth to God’s plans for our eternal lives, starting…now. As 88-year-old J.I. Packer, renowned theologian, affirmed after learning that he had macular degeneration, “God knows what he’s up to…. And I’ve had enough experiences of his goodness in all sorts of ways not to have any doubt about the present circumstances…. Some good, something for his glory, is going to come out of it.”[i]
I’m afraid we too often quote Jeremiah 29:11 and its hopeful note of “plans for good, plans with a future and a hope” without considering the context in which it was written. The Israelites, God’s people, have been exiled to Babylon from their home in Jerusalem after repeated disobedience and multiple warnings to repent. The Lord directs the Israelites to seek and pray for the welfare of Babylon, to build houses and marry and have children there, even as they wait for the Lord to return them to their home. The stint in Babylon was all part of God’s greater plan to bless the Israelites and to bless the world.
Just as God planned redemption and restoration for the Israelites, he has worked his redemption plan for Christians. The plan is for our Christlikeness to be magnified and for his gospel to be multiplied. If we trust in God’s plan, we have hope when disaster apparently befalls us. We are to continue seeking his face, even in the exile of the waiting room. As we wait, we know that God is completing the good work that he has begun in us (Phil. 1:6), and that one day soon Christ will return and restore all broken things. Such are God’s glorious plans for a future and a hope that we are looking forward to as we wait.
Prayer
Lord, help us to understand that our plans too often focus on building “houses” here: careers, families, wealth. Your plans far exceed ours, as you are intent on building us into a temple, a people who glorify you in all that we are and all that we do. Thank you that you have a better plan for us. Amen.
Further Encouragement
Read Jeremiah 29:1-11; Philippians 1:6; and 1 John 3:2.
For Reflection
What plans of yours or a loved one have been disrupted by this season in the waiting room? Ask God to help you trust him to work his good plan in your life.
[i] J.I. Packer, in interview with Ivan Mesa, J. I. Packer, 89, “On Losing Sight But Seeing Christ,” Gospel Coalition, January 14, 2016, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/j-i-packer-89-on-losing-sight-but-seeing-christ/. Accessed May 2, 2018.
Affiliate link above to The Waiting Room.