Walk-on Wednesday - Hope for Troubled Hearts - Martin Wiles

Welcome to Walk-on Wednesday. By Hump Day, we are struggling, but we believe a good devotion can strengthen us to finish the week strong. 

I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. Jeremiah 29:11 MSG

Every teacher worth their salt worries about their students’ future.

Some students are conscientious and organized and have their lives mapped out. Others consider school unimportant. They skip homework assignments and take the zero without thought. Or fail to study for tests, taking a C—or even a failing grade—when they’re capable of much better.

Once, I stumbled across a few of these students—my previous students—on a social media site. I was surprised and pleased to discover what they’d made of themselves. Mothers, fathers, spouses, business owners. God had plans, and he knew their future better than I.

Although they had suffered through seventy years of brutal captivity, God’s people would soon experience his plan for them: deliverance. God used the prophet Jeremiah to share that plan. All they had to do was believe God’s message and act on it when the time was right.

God doesn’t create without purpose. He forms and brings into existence individuals for whom he has a plan. Believing God has a plan for my life changes my perspective and gives me hope. If I choose to go my own way in life, I’ll miss his plan and his best.

God’s plan includes a mixture of joy and hardship. Deliverance was enticing for his enslaved people, but the road back to Jerusalem—and the ensuing hardships of rebuilding the city and the temple—would prove difficult. God doesn’t promise a bed of roses produced free of thorns, but among the prickles beautiful blooms emerge.

God probably won’t show us what we don’t ask to see, so discovering his plan is our responsibility. The strength to follow it, however, comes from him. When we follow his purpose, the results will shock us—just as the present lives of my past students do me.

When life seems hopeless, find hope in God’s plans. And when overcome by doubt, trust God’s heart and power.

Prayer:  Father God, we ask that You reveal Your plans and give us the courage and strength to pursue and realize them.

Tweetable: Do you have hope in troubled times? 

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