Happy New Year! 🙂

It’s 2018! The past year has been wonderful and full of blessings. While we don’t know what will happen this year, we do know we have a good Father, which means that this year will be good. 

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the future. It’s my senior year of high school, so I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do after I graduate. To be honest, graduation scares me. I don’t like change. I don’t like growing up. I don’t like uncertainties.

Unfortunately, I’ve found out that life has a lot of uncertainties. There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of decisions to be made, changes that happen in our lives – and I can’t do anything about it. You see, I like control. Honestly, I think we all do. We all like to know what’s going on, how things are happening, what things will change, and we want it to all go the way we want. But it doesn’t happen that way.

The thing is, we aren’t supposed to know everything. We aren’t supposed to have all the answers. If we did, we wouldn’t realize how much we need God.

God is awesome. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. Our lives, from everything going on now to everything that will happen, are in His capable hands.

To be honest, it’s hard for me to trust God with my future. Maybe because it’s unknown. It’s hard to trust something uncertain to someone else, and yet there is no better person to trust with my future than my heavenly Father who sees the future and has a plan for my life!

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

In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah is prophesying to an Israel in captivity. Israel was in exile in Babylon. Their lives were full of uncertainty, yet in the middle of all the craziness, God tells them, “I know the plans I have for you.” I’m sure the people hearing this message were going, “Are You sure, God? We’re in captivity! Why would this be a part of Your plan?” Wouldn’t we all say that? And don’t we? When things are crazy and uncertain in our lives we tend to ask God, “Are You sure?” We think we know better than God, but we can’t see the big picture God sees.

Thinking back to Israel in captivity – why were they in captivity? Because they had turned their backs on God. And if we read on past Jeremiah 29:11, we find God’s reason for their captivity:

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. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’ Jeremiah 29:11-14

God knew that the only way Israel was going to return to Him was if something drastic happened – captivity. While captivity seems a little overkill, it was exactly what Israel needed to be reminded of who the True God is. Israel did return and call upon the Lord and sought Him with their whole hearts. And God kept His promise. He brought them back to Jerusalem and restored them.

Now back to modern day. We are all going through uncertainties, some bigger and some smaller. But the question is, are we willing to trust God’s promise that He has a plan for our lives? Are we willing to believe that God’s plan for us is one of a future and a hope? Are we willing to rest in knowing that God will use all the craziness of our lives to draw us closer to Him?

So, whatever big changes are happening in your life this 2018, whether you’re graduating like me, moving, changing schools, or maybe you’re just having a busy year, trust God with your future. His plans are good. His plans for you are perfectly suited for you, because He loves you so much more than you can fathom.

I can’t wait to see what awesome plans God has in store for this year! Have a blessed 2018! 🙂

With love,

Kelsey