Devotion: Plans
Plans
Please take the time to read Luke 19:29-40
It was the first morning of Christmas vacation. So much to look forward to. With a heavy heart, I quietly tiptoed down to my daughter’s bedroom to wake her with the devastating news I had just received. I wanted her to hear it from me first. One of her 8th-grade classmates had died the night before from an accidental gunshot wound. As I sat on her bed, cradling her in my arms, we both wept in disbelief. Why? How could this be? What happened?
A mournful community gathered at his service the morning of Christmas Eve. A pall of deep sadness hovered over our Christmas that year.
A few days later my daughter, still mourning, was very troubled. She told me that one of her friend’s mothers had said it was God’s plan for Robbie to die because he was highly intelligent and was being spared from a life of not fitting in. My heart dropped to the floor. “No, No.” I said. I lovingly shared with her that was not what God intended when He said, “I have plans for you.”
Thank you, Pastor Greg, for your Sunday morning sermon on “Plans”. You set the record straight on Jeremiah 29:10-14. God had sent all of the captives from Jerusalem to Babylon. He is encouraging them to make the best of their situation, multiply and flourish, and live in peace. He has plans for them after seventy years in captivity and they are “good plans, not for disaster, but for a future and a hope.”
Too often the notion of God planning everything for you and me has been completely taken out of context. Going even further, in that passage it says for “you” which means everyone. He gives all of us hope because of the resurrection and the promise of eternal life.
We need only to gaze at the cross and know that God planned for a Messiah to come, die on the cross and save us from our sins that we may have eternal life in Him. Many of us have sung a hymn that proclaims, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”
God isn’t going to fix everything for us. Life happens. But, as Christ’s faithful followers, we have eternal hope in Him. Praise be to God!
Good and gracious God,
We thank you for the comfort you give us in the promise of eternal life. Lift up our eyes to the cross and put our hope in you. Amen
Written by Janece Nelson
Janece and husband, Mike, have been members of Sheridan for more than twelve years. Janece is a retired mathematics instructor teaching at the middle school and college level. They are blessed with two children and three grandchildren.
Janece finds her greatest joy in spending time with her family and friends. Her passion is writing devotions for patients in hospitals and rehabs she sees every Monday as a Sheridan hospital visitor. As a Teammate she also mentors girls at Boys Town. Janece credits Faith Builders and Companions in Christ for her spiritual growth.