e-votional
a message to encourage and uplift from College Heights Baptist Church
Wednesday February 4, 2009 (original send date: Friday, January 30, 2009)
I am so sorry. It appears that when e-votional #40 went out last Friday, it had the right header but the wrong text. It probably sounded familiar since you read it the week before! He is the corrected email.
If you would like any of the previous e-votionals, just reply to this email and let me know. Likewise, if you would like to stop receiving them.
We are excited to be able to provide the first twenty-six e-votionals (including a gospel presentation) in a printed booklet. The booklet, entitled Tough Life-Big God, is now available. The cost is $2 per book. You can email us if you would like to reserve a copy (or copies), or just pick some up on whenever the church is open. Also, you can check us out on-line at www.docdeer.wordpress.com.
11 ’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11, NASB
Ever wonder about life? You know. Just where your life is going and how you’re going to get there? Our lives are dominated by these questions. When we graduate high school, everyone wants to know, “what are you going to do with your life?” When we find someone special, “when are you getting married?” After we do marry, it’s “when are you having kids?” We get a little older and we worry about the mortgages and the car payments. We wonder if we made the right career choices and what will happen in the future. All the questions can get a little overwhelming.
Life can be that way. We worry about today, and all the days that are still to come. Jeremiah was no different. God had given him the difficult task of telling the nation of Judah that they were going to face some tough times. They were going to be captives in Babylon for seventy years. They were going to lose everything – except God. As the questions flooded Jeremiah’s heart and mind, God assures the prophet that He knew exactly where things were.
God is like that. He knows all about yesterday, today, and tomorrow! He knows what we are having for lunch next week. He knows how many grand-kids we will have. He knows how He is going to meet all of the needs in our lives. He knows it all. God knows exactly what He is doing and where we are going in our lives. I like to play chess, but I’m not very good at it. I tend to focus too much on the move at hand. The people who are good at it will tell you to see the whole board and think several moves ahead. That’s how God is. He sees the whole game. He knows where it’s all headed.
It does us good to stop and ponder for just a moment the fact that God is in complete control of our lives. He has plans for us. His plans always have our best interest at heart. The things we face may not always be easy, but God knows what He is doing. Remember that God doesn’t take joy in letting us suffer. He doesn’t play cosmic jokes on us. When something happens in our lives, it happens according to His purpose. God uses the difficulties in our lives to shape our character and draw us closer to Him. He knows where He’s taking us, and He knows the best way to get us there. He has plans to do great things in our lives. In God, we have a future and a hope.
Pastor Darrell
