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 hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11

When catastrophe strikes and disaster befalls you, be assured of only one thing: that God is with you.

There are no certainties in life. We cannot rely on our own strength or intellect, and we cannot even listen to our hearts, for we are warned that “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9).

To claim that we know anything – other than the fact that God is with us – is to put too much confidence in ourselves. Ultimately, we must rest in the knowledge that we know nothing except for this one simple fact: God is taking care of us.

For we know that “blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord alone. He shall be like a tree planted by waters, sending forth its roots by a stream: it does not sense the coming of the heat, its leaves are ever fresh; it has no care in a year of drought, it does not cease to yield fruit” (17:7-8).

When we fully rely on God and trust in Him, the coming of heat will not stir us, nor will drought cause us to thirst. He will provide our every need and give us “hope and a future.”

Every small and major event, both good and bad, should redirect us back to God. When we prosper, we should trust in God. When we falter, we should trust in God. When we stumble and fall for the thousandth time, we should trust in God. Even when our spirits are most willing and we are convinced of our inability to fall yet again, we should trust in God – and never in ourselves.

There is truly nothing else on this earth to be certain of. Even at our best, at our strongest, we should never for a moment delude ourselves into thinking that we are reliable by our own might. The only one who is reliable, who is trustworthy and true, is God. And we must rest in confidence that He has good plans for us, no matter what calamities befall us.

We have nothing except God.

But in God, we have everything.