Jeremiah 29 : Plans

"'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 a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.'" -Jeremiah 29:11-12

This is way overdue. I should have been blogging everyday this week about all that the Lord is doing, but He has been doing A LOT. So tonight, painfully stuffed with Sharky's Mexican food, I find myself sitting on the couch, reflecting on all that the Lord has done in my life since childhood, since graduating high school, since moving away for college, since this past October, heck, since yesterday.

Today I went to my friend Vicky's high school graduation. She was home schooled, so the graduation commencement was a little different from all other high school graduations I have ever been to. Each of the advising teacher's got to share fond memories and words of praise for each graduate, and each of the graduates got to come up to the podium with their parents and make a short speech. Vicky went up to the podium and the first thing that she said was that she wanted to thank her Heavenly Father for getting her thru high school. How often do we do that? Not necessarily getting up in front of people to declare God's praise--which we should--but how often do we even thank God for getting us thru things, or for providing for us in every way, or for blessing us beyond comprehension? One of the parents that came up to say the appropriate thank you's and praise's for her child's hard work, shared Jeremiah 29:11--an amazing promise. I remember getting many cards for my high school graduation that declared that same promise.

I love that graduations remind us of God's plans for our lives. But more importantly I love that God uses His Word to remind us of His plans for us and that if we prayerfully seek Him, He will listen.

The past few weeks have been absolutely COVERED in prayer. If anything the Lord has taught me the past year and a half is that prayer is vital. Nicole and I were so blessed by this past Sunday's worship and prayer night send off put on by my college group, Impact. The Holy Spirit was leading people in prayer

about things that I have not even thought about praying for. People were declaring God's victory over us, and praising the Lord in advance for the work that He will do. What a great God! I was telling my friend Ginny that it has been a great struggle to dig into the Word the past 2 weeks and to earnestly seek the Lord in prayer. And what does an awesome woman of the Lord like Ginny do? Oh that's right, she offers to meet with me every single day this week for Bible study and prayer at our beloved Coffee Bean. Our prayers have been so lead by the Spirit, and I know that the Lord hears us. He reminds us of His plans for us as young women finishing college, serving in ministry, seeking to give Him all the glory for/in/by/with our lives. We come to Him, call to Him, and pray to Him, and yes, He does listen.... and He answers!

For Example:

Nicole and I earnestly sought the Lord for our flights to Uganda. We boldly came before His throne of grace and asked that we would fly together. Nicole bought her ticket on Mother's Day, and the next day the British Airways Cabin Crew Union went on strike. I was then unable to book for the same flight as Nicole. It was looking less and less likely that our hope of traveling together would happen. So what did we do? We prayed that her flight would be canceled so that she would have to rebook, and then we could book for the same flight. We continued to seek the Lord, call on Him, and pray. What happened? Nicole's flight was cancelled! She rescheduled her flight for the 12th and after some interesting events that involved a discouraging travel agent, the British Airways website not allowing my pastor to buy my ticket online, and then him having to go to the British Airways kiosk at LAX to actually purchase the tickets, the Lord allowed us to be on the same flight. "'I KNOW the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord...." The Lord used the strike to teach us to trust Him more: HIS timing, HIS direction, HIS plans.

Another Example:

Up until this morning, I still had not bought my tickets from Uganda to Tanzania. "And you are flying out when?" you are wondering. In 3 days. After playing email tag with a travel agent the past 2 weeks, I prayed last night that the Lord would take care of that flight and the hotel arrangements today. "Pray to me, and I will listen to you." So this morning, I went and checked my email and there was an email from the travel agent telling me to call her after 12 pm EST. I called her, and she told me that my tickets had been booked. All they needed was a check sent to them and they would send me the tickets. Awesome!! But wait, I am leaving when? That's right...3 days. So I explained to her, I can overnight the check if they would email me my tickets for me to print out. She told me to hold while she asked her supervisor a question. She came back on and told me to just send the check today and to check my email in a few minutes because she was going to email me the tickets. !!!!!!! Did you hear that?! She was going to email me the tickets before they had received any payment. What a great God we serve! So what about the hotel stuff? I had received another email in my inbox from Pastor Godfrey, a pastor I got in contact with through Mr. Steve, the nicest church maintenance guy known to man. Pastor Godfrey is the pastor of a church in Kampala and wrote to tell me that he would book me a room at a nice hotel close to the airport and have one of his guys pick me up from the airport (when I fly back to Uganda from Tanzania) to take me to the hotel. Then the next morning for my connecting flight back to the US, the driver would then pick me up from the hotel and take me back to the airport. "...Plans to prosper you and not to harm you..."

And Yet Another:

I was praying that the Lord would provide a camera for me to use this summer (my camera broke 2 years ago, and I have not wanted to spend the money for a new one). My friend Ginny is generously letting me us her camera the whole summer!! It's a really nice Cannon PowerShot. God is so gracious, generous, and loving.

Don't get me wrong, God is NOT some magic jeanie that grants wishes for things. That is not Him at all. Rather, God is a Father who loves to delight in His children and He knows what we need. He knows what is best for us. God knew that I needed my flights, and He provided in awesome ways. Glory to God!! God knew that I needed to stay at a hotel in Uganda on my way back to the states, and He provided in amazing ways. Praise Him!! God knew that I didn't need a camera to use for the summer, yet He lovingly heard my prayers, and provided an excellent camera. God is good!! God KNOWS. He knows what He is doing. He promises to prosper us, and not to harm us, to give us a hope and a future. His plans for us may be to be blessed with riches, or to be blessed with the lack of them. His plans for us may be to be happily married or to be happily single. His plans for us may be many different things, but He promises to be found by those who "seek (Him) with all (their) heart('s)". Therefore, I will trust His plans and daily surrender mine.