Category Archives: God’s Plan

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October 7, 2014

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God's Grace & Love, God's Plan, Prayer, Trusting God

HE KNOWS BUT DO WE?

Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him. [Matthew 6:8 (NCV)]

If He already knows our requests, why bother to pray? Needing to get free of debt, a couple prays for raises or better jobs; what they need, however, is to learn how to live within a budget. A friend “needs” her children to get married so she can have grandchildren. Perhaps what she really needs is to accept that her children are moving at their own pace and to ask the Lord to bless them with someone to love who will love them in return. A wife prays for her husband to be healed of Parkinson’s when what is needed is guidance in learning how to live joyfully within the confines of the disease. A father prays that his child will be freed from his addiction; God knows that the father needs to stop enabling the child’s behavior. What we want and what we need are often not the same things.

We believe we need certain things (people, money, possessions or occurrences) so we pray for those. Much for which we pray, however, we don’t need or shouldn’t have and we’ll never get. We also believe we need to be freed from other things (consequences, disease, discomfort, and disagreeable tasks). Much of what we want God to remove, however, we need to learn to live with and accept that it’s here to stay. We tend to want our requirements met quickly and easily but God doesn’t seem to work that way. He wants us to know Him and to trust that He knows our every need (far better than we ourselves do). We may not know what we need, but God always does. He will, indeed, provide everything we truly need at the correct time and in the right way.

Father in Heaven, thank you for knowing our innermost needs. Help us to understand the difference between what we want and what it is we truly need. Give us grateful and accepting hearts for however and whenever our prayers are answered.

Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it. [Hebrews 4:16 (NCV)]

 

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September 20, 2014

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Faith & Hope, God's Plan, God's Promises, Prayer, Worry

A GODSEND

We don’t know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself speaks to God for us. He begs God for us, speaking to him with feelings too deep for words. God already knows our deepest thoughts. And he understands what the Spirit is saying, because the Spirit speaks for his people in the way that agrees with what God wants. We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. These are the people God chose, because that was his plan. [Romans 8:26b-28 (ERV)]

The three of us had been trying to solve a difficult situation for most of the summer. No solution seemed quite right. Not knowing how we were going to deal with this problem, I had simply given it to God, praying that He would guide us. We didn’t know what we needed exactly but surely He would provide whatever it was. As our deadline for a decision approached, we began to fret over finding the correct resolution. Suddenly, we realized the answer was looking us in the face. God had provided exactly what we required! Some would say it was a stroke of luck to find the answer to our prayers, a person, at a time in her life when she needed us as well. Luck had nothing to do with it. This person is truly a Godsend. I have no doubt that God saw our need, and hers, and set a series of events in place over the summer that brought us all together at exactly the right time.

Thank you, Lord, for your provision and for knowing what we need far better than we ourselves do.

I am praying to you in my time of trouble. I know you will answer me. [Psalm 86:7 (ERV)]

I will answer them before they call for help. I will help them before they finish asking. [Isaiah 65:24 (ERV)]

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August 23, 2014

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God's Plan, Obedience, Trusting God

HIS PLANS

The Lord will work out his plans for my life – for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. [Psalm 138:8 (NLT)]

Lord, keep me from being so rigid in my life that I fail to accept and follow your plan for my life. I’m hesitant to surrender completely to your will because I fear what you might ask of me. Yet, in my heart, I know that you will equip me with whatever skills I need to do whatever you ask of me. Moreover, because you love me, I know you’ll give me a joyful heart as I do it! Lord, I am yours; direct me!

But as Scripture says: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” [1 Corinthians 2:9 (GW)]

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August 4, 2014

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Attitudes & Behavior, Fruit of the Spirit, God's Plan, Obedience, Spiritual Gifts

WHAT’S YOUR PURPOSE?

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. [Colossians 1:9b-10 (NLT)]

What is my purpose, my goal, in life? Now in my seventh decade, I still vacillate over the answer. Moreover, the answer seems to have changed over the years. Was it to be an obedient child and a good student? To be a good mother and homemaker? Is it now to be a loving grandmother? Has it been to be a community volunteer? Is it now to be a writer? Was it to help my husband in business? Is it now to enjoy retirement?

What is our purpose in life? Is it to be someone, have something, achieve a special goal, accomplish a specific task, or to amass a particular amount of money? Upon reading the Bible, however, I realize there is no reason to be uncertain when answering that question. Our purpose is clearly laid out for us in Jesus’ own words:

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT)]

 

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August 3, 2014

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God's Plan, Prayer, Trusting God

HIS FATHER’S PLAN

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” [Luke 2:49 (NKJV)]

When Jesus tasted the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and died. [John 19:30 (NCV)]

Even Jesus had to follow a plan: God’s plan. Jesus knew what he had to do, he did it, and he knew when it was completed. God has plans for us, too. Too often, however, His plans are not the plans we have in mind. Instead of asking God to bless the plan we make, let’s ask God to make our plan be the one that He blesses!

This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time, and he carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord [Ephesians 3:11 (NCV)]

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July 27, 2014

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Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, God's Plan, Trusting God

FROM BAD TO WORSE

I hate my life, so I will complain without holding back; I will speak because I am so unhappy. [Job 10:1 (NCV)]

When Job’s life became a chronicle of disasters, he honestly expressed his anger to God. Most likely, we all have felt like Job at one time or another. We can barely get out of bed to face another day where things just seem to go from bad to worse through no fault of our own. Unlike Job, we may not have lost family, health and wealth in one fell swoop and we may not have expressed our feelings so vividly, but we’ve all endured times of despair and misery. Although Job wrongly believed that his problems were a result of God’s anger at him, the one thing he never did was turn from God in his misery. In spite of wondering where God was in all of his wretchedness, Job refused to curse God in his despair.

Lord, it’s easy to believe in a loving and merciful God when our lives are filled with your blessings; it’s much harder when life goes wrong. Keep us strong in our faith so that we never let outward circumstances alienate us from you. Help us accept your plan for our lives, no matter what it may be. The outer circumstances of our lives won’t necessarily change with our acceptance, but the inner ones surely will.

His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong. [Job 2:9-10 (NLT)]