The Plan

A few years prior to my diagnosis, I prayed and asked God to reveal the scripture my mother was going to share with me the evening before her passing. I dreaded not letting her finish telling me while we were on the phone that night. Ever since the day she passed, it had been in the back of my mind. What was it? Why did she want to share it? How could it touch my life now?

Then one day I came across Jeremiah 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.” It jumped out at me like it was in 3D! I knew in my heart that this was indeed the scripture. And just because God is such a show-off, He sent that scripture to me in several different ways over the next few years. He wanted to remind me to keep hope alive (Literally! Hope it my middle name.) and also assure me that He has a plan for my future!

I’m never taken off guard at how God speaks to me. He speaks in a way that He knows I hear and understand. So it was never a surprise when I was going through something that challenged my faith that this scripture would somehow pop up in my life. Sometimes I’d get a random devotional email that quoted it. Other times I’d open my bible app on my iPad, and it would be on that exact page. In some way or another, He always reminded me, “I have a plan.”

His message to me became ingrained in my spirit, and I began to say, “God has a plan for my life.” to anyone around whenever I was going through something. I was convinced of that fact. So when I began having these health challenges, although some days were extremely tough, I trusted God’s plan. That’s certainly not to say that I didn’t pray for a miracle. That was indeed my main prayer, and I was definitely hoping that was the plan! But God doesn’t always reveal the details of how He will deliver us. I’ll bet Moses never imagined the Red Sea would part so they could be delivered from Pharoah. To the contrary, he may have thought, “Well, I guess we can thank God for deliverance through drowning.” But God brought them right to the place where their running ended, and his sovereign power began. It seems like God likes when we run out of options so we can look to Him for help and deliverance. That’s when we usually learn that there was no way within our own power we could have been delivered anyway.

That’s precisely where I was – standing at my red sea. I had no idea how to help myself anymore. I was fresh out of options. But God had a plan.