I know that, as teenagers, we often think about what we want to do – and be – when we are older. How we want to look, how we want our lives to turn out. We have a plan, and we just hope that it will all turn out the way we have planned in our heads. Because, to us, that is the perfect plan – it makes the most sense.
When I was younger, I was sure I’d be married by the time I was the age I am now – a whopping 21 – and maybe even have a child on the way. That was my plan. To be a wife and mother by the time I was an adult.
And yet, I’m not anywhere near that point in my life.
I had this picture in my head of what my life would look like, and it didn’t happen that way.
As Christians, or even just as a human race, we often have our lives fantasized. We try to imagine the best future possible, in hopes that we will get just that – the best future.
And yet, we need to take a step back and think about what God is telling us – and how He has a will for each of our lives that is much better than anything we could ever think up in our wildest dreams.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 has always been a place that I could turn when I wasn’t sure why certain things were happening in my life that I was unsure of. When I lost my job I’d had for three years, I turned to Jeremiah 29:11. When I couldn’t find another “good job” in a timely manner, I turned to Jeremiah 29:11.
These verses are hope for us.
Because it’s saying that God – the only Person that has control over everything in the whole world – has a plan for US. And, He has had that plan since before the beginning of all time.
In that quote by C.S. Lewis, it says, “…for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, then made by God…”
How amazing is that? God thought us up – everything from how we’d look, to how we’d act, to how our lives would be lived out – before the world was even around, and He made us who we are.
He made us the men and women we are today. God decided, yes, I want that girl to have red hair and blue eyes, and be short. I want that guy to be good at sports, but terrible at singing.
And He knows if you’ll go to college, He knows if you’ll get married (and when!). He has the plan, and all we have to do is pray. Pray that He shows us His will so that we can understand.
Everything about you, God thought up. He made you who you are, and He made you that way for a reason. He gave us each strengths and weaknesses for a reason. He gives us trials and tribulations so that we realize that He is the perfect rock to turn to.
Our plans may seem good to us, but they are nowhere near as perfect as what God has planned for our lives.
“And that is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.”