Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster,
to give you a future and a hope.
When I read this verse, a million things come to mind. I’m serious! That much comes to my mind.
As a writer, often I will have in mind a beginning and an end to a piece of writing. Then, what to put in the middle is a different thing all together. Yet, as a writer, I’m dictating every stroke of my pen, but God does not dictate. He allows and intercedes into our choices to bring about His plans. Still there are a million different choices that we can make in life. There’s no telling how many of them He’ll allow and how many He won’t.
Would I be where He wants me to be had I made different choices? Does He have a set number of plans that He determines will happen in my life regardless of my choices even though many of them were not good. Had I not made the rebellious choices in my teenage years, or if I had not given birth to a child out of wedlock, would He still bring about those plans? Some of my choices were sacrificial, and I know they lined up with His will, but what if I had not made the right ones? What if I had chosen to take that promotion at work instead of staying home to be “domestic” as a stay-at-home wife and mother? Would He still bring me back around to where I should be?
What about the choices that were not my own? If I had not been removed from Christian school, if I had not the sinful exposure to a number of things growing up, if my daughter’s biological father had not chosen to walk away from responsibility, would God have different plans for me?
So, I ask again…are there a certain number of set plans He has for each of us…the kind of plans that He says will occur regardless of our choices? I believe so, but I also believe there are more than just those. I believe He has plans that hinge on our choices. I believe that I have missed out on wonderful prosperous plans because of wrong choices. Likewise, I believe I have experienced plans come to fruition that could have been lost had I not chosen the right way.
Yes, there are countless plans that this verse could allude to. The possibilities are mind-staggering. And yes, there are a million different ways a life can go at every turn. He will allow it if He can use it to bring about His plans. Likewise, there are just as many circumstances He’ll say, “No,” to.
If I believe what He says, if I trust that whatever happens, He has allowed it, not dictated it, but allowed it, then I’ve opened myself up to receive the strength He has available for me to get through whatever needs to be gotten through, so that I can finally get to those plans
.
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By the way, if you are a writer, can you imagine, having your beginning and your end figured out, as well as each character? Then can you imagine a list of ideas that you know will be included in your story, and a list of many more ideas that you would love to be included in your story, but chances are that most of the wonderful things on the second list won’t make it to the final draft? Finally, think about this…the reason they won’t all be included is because you’ve allowed your characters to write the middle of the story themselves, and you are not allowed to control their choices.
Wow! How frustrating! If we knew all that God has for us, and if we would just ask for His guidance and follow it, how different life would be. He knows them…He knows them all, and they’re all good.
Amie Spruiell
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