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Seek God to Realize His Plans
John TiltonJeremiah 29:11-14
For I know the plansI have for you,” declares theLord, “plans to prosperyou and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.12Then you will call on me and come and prayto me, and I will listento you.13You will seekme and find me when you seek me with all your heart.14I will be found by you.”
Verse 11 is so well known, especially at New Hope; that we should know that God’s plans for us is indeed to prosper us, not harm us, but to give us a hope and future. What is compelling though is the following verses that subsequently, they/we would call on the Lord and seek Him in prayer, and that He would/will listen. The Lord reaffirms this key verse in reiterating that we would seek Him and find Him with all of our hearts. What grabs me is that he declares, He will be found in us, after we seek Him and pray to Him out of our needs and desires.
I believe that we all tend to think that because of God’s love, He will bestow His plan for us to prosper without us really always needing to step forth in action and faith, and even more so that the answer of His power and plan, is He in us. Thus, His declaration is that the key is for us to call on Him and seek Him, in order for us to realize the answer to our needs … we need to assert a faith action step! The affirmation then of His presence is the fact that He declares that He the will listen to us.
Thus, the chain link of God’s plan for our lives is in all of these verses together in that His divine plan for our lives is found in the process of us seeking Him in prayer, and taking action to realize His plan coming to fruition in our lives. I need to earnestly go to the Lord more in my time of need and challenge, with specifics and a heart of faith, knowing that He hears me and wants me to prosper in His plan for my life. There’s another key; that it not my plan for my life, but His plan for my life.
Dear Lord, may I realize that it is your plans for my life that you speak of in these scriptures and that I need to seek you in prayer to see your plan come to fruition for me to prosper, and that my prosperity is in your plan, not my plan, which is what we often tend to believe these scriptures apply to.
