Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Occasionally in this life we are going to experience circumstances or situations that make our future look very uncertain. It could be the day you lost your job or spouse, getting diagnosed with a serious illness or a national calamity such as what we experienced on 9/11.
I vividly remember the day the roof on our church building almost collapsed on us during our Sunday morning worship. Because we had already suffered so much sorrow and loss I went home that day not knowing what the future held for the church or me. All I knew to do at that moment was to place the church, my ministry and future into the hands of the Almighty.
I knew the only way I was going to make it through that mess was to believe that God had plans for me, plans of peace and prosperity, a future and a hope, regardless of what would happen in the days ahead.
I know Jeremiah 29:11 may be over-used, but that does not take away the truth of it for a moment. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I still love and seek to live by this verse.
I think it is important to recognize that it doesn’t say, “I know the thoughts that I have thought toward you.” Rather, He says, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you.” The Lord is thinking specifically about you at this very moment. That is amazing.
I believe the Apostle Paul lived by Jeremiah 29:11. When he wrote Philippians, he was in prison and facing a very uncertain future. There was a real possibility he would be executed, but he was not absolutely sure that he would be. There was a point in time when he did not know if he was going to languish in jail for the rest of his life, be executed or be released. His future seemed totally up in the air.
In Chapter 1:21 Paul gives us the key that will unlock Jeremiah 29:11, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” In essence Paul was saying, “I am not worried whichever way it turns out. It doesn’t make any difference to me. I may live and if so awesome because Christ is in me and I will live from Him, through Him and to Him (Rom. 11:36). On the other hand if I die that’s even better because then I get to see Christ face-to-face and live with Him (Phil. 1:23).”
I had a dream a few weeks ago about Christ as my life. In the dream I saw my entire life up to that moment and a voice said, “It all belongs to Christ now.” That is so reassuring because in Christ there are no messes, mistakes or “Ishmaels” and I had plenty of those. It is all under His blood now.
I knew it was time to “forget those things which are behind” and begin “to reach forward to those things which are ahead” (Phil. 3:13). If we are going to consistently walk in the Spirit we must learn to live by Jeremiah 29:11 not the past or even our cloudy view of the future.
I then looked ahead and the voice spoke again and said, “Christ is your life.” He is the upward call (Phil. 3:14) and the “door standing open in heaven” (Rev. 4:1). He is the true meaning of Jeremiah 29:11. Christ is God’s plan for all of us; Christ is the peace & prosperity, the future and hope. Now is the time to start possessing in a greater measure His purposes for our lives (Phi. 3:12). God desires for us to believe and reach for the “hope of His calling” (Eph. 1:18).
Many Blessings, BW