Jeremiah 29:11-13 English Standard Version

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[peace] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Some of us have a problem knowing what to do next. Let us remind ourselves what God has said on the matter.

The first step is that God has already set a plan in motion. This is the Alpha and Omega who knows all things from the end, back to the beginning. He already knows how things will turn out. If He has set a plan in motion then He knows how it will turn out. His plans do not fail.

The second thing is our expectation of what those plans mean for us. That is selfish but we are human and we often look at things from a standpoint of “what’s in it for me?” When we think of welfare, do we equate that with the secondary meaning of peace, or do we look at it in physical terms? Welfare could be safety, health, success or even wealth. What we expect will often be used to try and determine in human terms what God’s plan is rather than just watching it unfold for us as God’s will is discovered. All we can look for is that it will not be a bad thing, not leading us to evil.

Tomorrow is the future. His plans progress every day. Progress is His plans unfolding. If we do not feel like we are not progressing we can feel that we are not in HIs will because things are not working out the way we hoped. What we fail to understand is that the hope is in God and not in us. It is our future but His plan and His hope. 

When we realize all this then the next progressive movement takes place. We call on Him. We have come to the point where it is no longer all about what we want and what we hope and we open up to Him in prayer. Of course He hears us, that was in the plan all along. So why do we doubt God’s Word? Maybe because we don’t think we have honestly sought Him with all our heart. Seeking with a heart that belongs to God, that is His dwelling place, which knows Him in ways our minds are only faintly familiar with, is not a mental exercise, it is an exercise of faith.

Why does this have to be so complicated? If it was easy we would do it and this is God at work in us and through to execute His will according to His plan for His glory.

Philippians 2:13 English Standard Version (SEV) for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Isaiah 43:19 English Standard Version (ESV) Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

God is doing a new thing. We are often told this is one thing, Faith in Christ replacing obeying the law for righteousness. If we accept that definition of “a new thing” we might miss that new instructions can come at any time for any reason that God might choose. 

We are sojourners in this world, meaning we move about constantly in the world and if we wander aimlessly we will end up lost to God’s will for us. Remain lost to God’s will long enough and we will find ourselves in a dry place.

Some of us have a long history of experience in walking with the Lord. What God has done in us and for us leaves us with a sense of God’s graces and provisions. If we get the opportunity to walk with the Lord long enough we get to experience new adventures, new responsibilities, new fellowships, and times of rest from our journeys. Rest does not mean we should get “settled in our lees.”

Jeremiah 48:11 King James Version (KJV) Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

Less are the sediments in the bottom of a wine flask and only increases if pouring more and more new wine into an old flask. “His taste remained in him” is like us relying on our experiences to determine God’s will. We lose the scent of God’s leading and can only sense ourselves.

2 Corinthians 4:16 English Standard Version (ESV) So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Our inner self is emptied every day in order to remove the sediments that place our vessel at risk of losing the scent of the Holy Spirit in instructing us where to go and what to do today. The mind holds onto the memory of past experiences and if we rely on that rather than sensing what the Spirit is doing, we go astray.