Category: Love For God

The Plans I Have For You

Jeremiah 29:11-13

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

This is a very familiar verse for most of us!  It is often quoted, and many of us have memorized … even memorialized these prophetic words.  No doubt that any one of us want to have a positive outlook on life … a hopeful future … and a purpose directed by God.  These things are central to our human experience and longing.  But Jeremiah looks deeper into what hope and purpose entail.  There are actions on our part that are fundamental to the realization of those plans God has promised to bring about in our lives.  In Verses 12 and 13, he states, “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I think we need to look closer at those words in the context:

  • You will call on Me
  • You will come and pray to Me AND I will listen to you
  • You will seek Me
  • You will find Me WHEN you seek Me with all your heart

I sense there are people who want to know God’s will for their lives.  They want to know HIS plans for their lives … the future HE envisions … the prosperity and protection HE promises.  Yet they do not pray … they do not sit still and listen … they do not seek God with their whole heart.  They have their own ideas for happiness … their own conceptions of prosperity … and they simply want God to bless what they want to do … based on their own plans for their lives.  This is not what the Word of God teaches us; and I urge anyone caught in this inner struggle and take a step back and examine themselves and their motivations….  We need to consider what the Prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 55:6-9 (NKJV)

6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the man of iniquity forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

This is why we need to come to God … to pray to Him … to listen to Him … to seek Him with our whole hearts … in order to know what HE has planned and ordained for our lives IN HIM.   A few days ago, I mentioned this verse: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Here, Paul quoted Isaiah 64:4 which reads: “For since the beginning of the world people have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.”  Since the beginning people have not understood what God has planned and purposed for us; yet Paul indicates that God HAS revealed these things to us through His Spirit.  Indeed, God has made known the riches of His wisdom. But you and I cannot find out the plans God has for us … the future and hope He has ordained for us … if we do not have an intimate relationship with Him.  As Hebrews 11:6 asserts, “But without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Do you want to know the plans that God has for you? His desire to give you abundant life? (Cf. John 10:10) Eternal life? (Cf. John 3:15-16) Then you need to call upon God.  You need to go to Him and pray.  You need to listen.  You need to seek Him with your whole heart.  For we read in Jeremiah 29:14 where God has said, “I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive. Do you see what the verse is telling us?  “I will bring you back from your captivity.”  Captivity?  Yes, we have held ourselves hostage … imprisoned ourselves with our own thoughts and our own plans … our own visions of the future and not the plans God has designed and purposed for us.  He allowed us to be held captive there … in those thoughts … so that we could see and experience the futility … the servitude … the enslavement … of man-made dreams!  But God has something better … something greater … something more fulfilling and satisfying for our souls … if we would but seek an intimate relationship with Him who is our Creator … our Savior … our Lord.

Here are some exhortations that come to mind:

Psalm 33:10-11 (NKJV)

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.

Psalm 146:3-4 (NIV)

3 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. 4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge (submit to) Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 14:22 (NIV)

22 Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.

Proverbs 14:22 (NKJV)

21 There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.

Proverbs 23:17-18 (NIV)

17 Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord. 18 There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Proverbs 23:17-18 (NIV)

“Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin….

Matthew 6:24 (NIV)

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Matthew 16:24-25 (NKJV)

24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Matthew 22:37-39 (NKJV)

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

James 4:3-5 (NKJV)

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

So what is the application?  God knows the plans that HE has for you!  His thoughts toward you are thoughts of peace … not of harm.  His thoughts are for you … not against you.  The future He offers is the hope of eternal life … given to us through Christ Jesus our Lord.  God is asking us to come to Him for answers … to call upon Him and pray to Him.  God is asking us to seek Him with all of our heart … to trust Him in all things and not lean upon our understanding.  Our understanding is limited.  We only know in part. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12) But what we do know is more than sufficient!  For we know the love of God … His great love (Cf. Ephesians 2:4) … His lavish love … that we might be called His children. (Cf. 1 John 3:1).  Yes, we can trust God for our future because we can trust God for His love. Amen.

So Now You Know!

Have a Blessed Day!

No Eye Has Seen

1 Corinthians 2:9

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love Him—

I have always leaped for joy when I read this passage.  My imagination affords a wide range of the possibilities for heaven.  I think about the vivid descriptions of the Apostle John recorded in the Book of The Revelation … the emerald majesty of God’s throne … the illuminate Holy City of New Jerusalem … the foundations of precious gem stones and streets of gold as pure as transparent glass….  Heaven really is inconceivable even with the panoramic view we have been given.

But then I looked at the passage in its immediate context, and I thought there is more to what Paul is trying to convey here.  I began to see this verse from a different perspective … one that I had not considered before.  So I have reprinted the entire chapter for us to examine, because I think there is some broader truth to observe in this regard.

1 Corinthians 2 (NIV)

1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. 6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” (Cf. Isaiah 64:4) — the things God has prepared for those who love Him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?” (Cf. Isaiah 40:13) But we have the mind of Christ.

Contemplating this passage within the context has shifted my focus from the eternal to the present. The Lord Jesus shared that He was would go to prepare a place for us in heaven and return to take us to be with Him there. (Cf. John 14:2-3) And I believe John has given us a vivid description of that place.  But to me, in the context, this passage appears to be addressing the mystery of the Gospel itself … the wisdom of God and His plan of salvation to be accomplished through His Son … Jesus, the Messiah.  Indeed, no human mind could have conceived that God the Father, the Creator of the Universe, would in essence sacrifice Himself for His own creation as an act of atonement for the sin and corruption that had entered into it.  For God sent His Son, Jesus, to be the Lamb of God … who was slain from the creation of the world. (Cf. Revelation 13:8) Indeed, our salvation is truly unimaginable; and yet, this is the eternal life that God has prepared for those who love Him. And this great salvation has been revealed to us by His Spirit.  Yes, The Spirit has revealed even the deep things of God … so that we might know them!

We do not have to look beyond the Word of God … written by the Holy Spirit upon the minds and hearts of holy men of God (2 Peter 1:21) … to see and understand what God has revealed regarding His plan of salvation.  Until the revelation of the Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ Jesus, no eye had truly seen … no ear had truly heard … no human mind had ever conceived the plan of salvation that God had prepared for those who love Him.  As Hebrews 1:1-3 explains, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.” Wow! Just think about that a moment! How incredible is it – that the Creator of the universe would have the care or concern to afford His creation insight into the thoughts of His own mind … the love of His own heart … His deep desire to make Himself known to us!  It was accomplished through the Messiah … the Son of God … Jesus! He brought complete reality to all that had been spoken … to all that had been revealed!  The thoughts of God … the deep things of God … were revealed by His Spirit and witnessed in His Son.

And this is the message: God loves us … His children … so deeply that He died for us!  God sacrificed of Himself as a testimony of His indescribable, inconceivable, inseparable love! Paul would describe His passionate love with these words: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,  neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Cf. Romans 8:38-39) Indeed, the Word of God is HIS testimony which He has given about His Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (Cf. 1 John 5:9-11)

Luke 24:44 (NIV)

Jesus said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

1 Peter 1:10-12 (NIV)

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

So, I hope this discussion has stirred your own thoughts about the Gospel … its hidden wisdom that has been revealed to those who love God through the Spirit.  As the Apostle John affirmed for us: “12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  (Cf. 1 John 5:12-13) And so I share this word with you that the Gospel may be applied to your hearts in the present … and so that you will know for certain the eternal life that awaits you in that truly inconceivable place Jesus has gone to prepare for us!  And the greatest news is that He will soon return …  so that we might be with Him where He is!

So Now You Know!

Have a Blessed Day!

Love For God = Obedience

Psalm 97:10

Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

I always love to read the Psalms and bask in the spiritual emotion David delivers through His inspired meditations.  As these verses from the Psalms come to us, I encourage you to read the entire and not just the verse or two presented.  I pulled the immediate context around the verse today to share both its wisdom and encouragement with you:

Psalm 97:9-12 (NIV)

9 For you, Lord, are the Most-High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
10 Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown on the righteous (Cf. Psalm 112:4) and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous, and praise His holy name.

Here, David affirms the supremacy of a single Holy Being … Yahweh … who is the Most-High God. His Being and power are infinitely above anything that could even be entitled a little god.  David wanted the people to know and to understand WHO they worship and the purpose for which He is to be exalted.  God is ultimately beyond our comprehension; and yet, He wants us to know Him and to love Him with the light that we have been given through His Spirit and His Word.

Love is the defining term of the relationship we are to embrace with our Most-High God. And there are qualities to love that we would do well to examine. We are commanded by God to love Him, to walk in obedience to Him, and to keep His commandments, decrees, and laws. (Cf. Deuteronomy 30:16) Thus, to demonstrate love for God, we are to be obedient.  David exhorts that those who love the Lord will hate evil.  Thus, to demonstrate love for God, we must abhor anything that is against what is good – as God has defined and revealed goodness through His Spirit and His Word. And love for God is manifested through faithfulness.  What we profess to God must align with what we do for God.  The Apostle John made these very same points:

1 John 2:5 (NIV)

4 Whoever says, “I know Him,” but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. 5 But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: 6 Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.

1 John 4:7-8 (NIV)

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 5:2-3 (NIV)

2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome….

Paul wrote in Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to a neighbor.  Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the Law.”  Love hates evil in any form!  This is what we need to understand.  And those who love the Lord are protected by God – for He guards the lives of His faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.  Faithful ones are those who love God and love others as He has commanded.  Further, we cannot walk in darkness and practice evil because “light is sown on the righteous.” (See Also Psalm 112:4) I love how that is phrased: “light is sown”.  The light and wisdom of God is place in the soil of our hearts … it is sown and watered by the Holy Spirit … to indwell us and to grow and to bear the fruit of righteousness in our lives.  And likewise, the joy of this experience is embedded within us!  This is why the righteous … those who love the Lord and hate evil … are able to rejoice in the Lord and to worship Him.  It stems from the deep love of God for us so that our response can be none other than love itself … a love expressed by worship in Spirit and in Truth … and demonstrated through love for one another.  

I hope that you will find something here that speaks to your heart … to either challenge you, encourage you, or both.

So Now You Know!

Have a Blessed Day!