God's Plan: He's Got the Whole World...

This is the first thing I wrote when beginning my devotional group last year.

I usually read two Scripture passages; I have a devotional book with a suggested reading accompanying it, and I have a list of the lectionary readings for each day.

This morning I read Jeremiah 29:1-7, which was very interesting; one often hears verses 11-13 quoted from chapter 29 but I don't remember ever hearing the beginning of the chapter before. It is about God's instructions during captivity. Basically he tells the Israelites to keep on keeping on until the captivity is over.

And that's the context that verse 11 comes from: they need to hold on and keep following God because His plans for them are to give them a hope and a future.

Then in the NT I read the story of Anna the prophetess from Luke 2. Anna was 84 years old and waiting her whole life to see the Messiah; God granted her this desire before she died.

These two Bible passages together say this to me:

I don't know God's plan for my life. I can't possibly know it, no matter how much I want to.

I can't know why things happen the way they do, or how my little life fits into God's grand plan for the whole world. All I can do is trust that there IS a bigger plan, and a reason for everything I don't understand, and trust His word that says His plans are for good and not for evil, to give me a hope and a future.