Day 4 - Week 35 - Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future."

"I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord.

God knows His plans for us, we don't.  God chooses, in His sovereignty, not to disclose His plans for our lives to us ahead of time.  Instead, He asks us to trust Him, and His plans, telling us that they are good plans, plans that we can put our hope in.

All of the verses that we have studied so far should be building in us a clearer picture of God. 

• We have seen that He is the God of creation---His plan for a place of existence that is completely sustaining for us. 
• He is the God of salvation---His plan for redeeming mankind and restoring us to relationship with Him. 
• He is the God of the written word---His plan for transmitting His message to us, a message of love and of hope. 
• He is the God of prayer---His plan for communicating with us throughout this life.
• He is the God of assurance---His plan for taking away our doubts and fears
• He is a God worthy of praise---His plan for revealing to us His majesty and glory
• He is a God of promise---His plan for guaranteeing to those who believe in Him their eternal future

God has great plans, doesn't he?  Never doubt that God does have a plan, He has many plans.  They are all good and all working toward good things for our future.  And He has a plan for you and for me, individually.  We can choose to trust and obey Him and live within His plan for us, or we can strike out on our own, abandoning His plan and living our lives according to our own plans.  But when you stop and think about it, who is that can see beginning to end, and who is that can only see to the end of their nose?  Who is able to make a better plan?  Who is wiser, the Creator of the Universe, or me or you, with limited intelligence? 

I think I will choose to live by the plan of my Father who loved me so much that He planned for His Son to come to earth, teach me His ways, take my sins to the cross, bear the punishment that I deserved, rise from the dead showing His power over death, and ascend again to sit at His right hand waiting for the day to return to earth to gather His own!

Now that's a plan!