Plan & Purpose

I was struck today by something. I wanted to spend some time devotionally this AM, but these past couple of days have been hectic. My wife's 97 year old Grandmother passed away yesterday morning. We can use your prayers for all that needs to now come together with regards to family getting home from both Germany and Afghanistan. In the mean time, any plans you might have made are out the window when it comes to dealing with family in need. We adjust, we make time, we make sacrifices. Funding is scraped together. Whatever it takes, we work hard to do it. I was given some scripture, which was comforting, but then I remembered something else.

I remembered that the verse that God comforted me with was near the top of the list of most searched bible verses. As it turns out, it was number three on the list as quoted from BibleGateway.com. It really got me thinking. If you listen to the liberal pundits, you'd believe that this is not a Christian nation any more. But yet you and I both know that as soon as many of us face trouble we seek out god, and His comfort.

The verse that the Lord gave me was Romans 8:28. Rom 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." As Christians, we trust God. But even for those of us who are not, we WANT things to go well. We WANT things to work out for the better. We WANT to hope and dream that the trials that we go through are not just 'because' but that they have a purpose, and that in the end, it will all work out for the better. That thought, that hope, that DREAM is human nature. The REALITY is God's nature, and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can be a reality for you as well.

But what really cemented the thought line for me was this: The second most searched verse on BibleGateway: Jer 29:11: "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."

If God is not God, and this is not a world of lost souls crying out for God, why is it that when in times of trouble we cry out to Him? Why is it that we all seek that 'higher understanding' of life, even if we do not recognize what that understanding is or what we are really searching for? What more peace can come to any man, than to know that the very Creator has His hands in every little thing that goes on in your life? And what even when you do not understand what is going on, that you can take comfort in knowing that there is a plan. Even more so, that this plan is for your benefit, and that there is a purpose for all things.

In the most base things of the gospel message, behind recognizing the divinity of Jesus and His sacrificial death for you on the cross, I can think of few, if anything about the gospel that is more important to the comfort of the soul, than to know that God is in charge. That He has a plan for you. That all things in this plan will work together for good. Your life is in the hands of the Creator. Oh, what a comfort.