"An Expected End"

Recently I was reading a devotion and this phrase jumped out at me, “Understand even the bad stuff may be part of God's plan.”  Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” When we hear these words, we often smile with hope for the adventure ahead. But the truth is life is not always an adventure. Things are not always easy and fun. There will be hard times when we don’t understand why things are the way they are, and times when we wonder where God is at. 

I am sure if we could speak with Job, he would say there were days he didn’t understand what was happening in his life! Note that the last part of Jeremiah 29:11 says, “to give you an expected end.” Romans 8:28 also tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” We must understand that God’s plan may go against our plan and even against what makes sense to us. Instead of giving time and energy to the what-ifs, we can remind ourselves that an unsure outcome opens the door for God to be glorified in our situation. We can find the “thoughts of peace” mentioned in Jeremiah 29:11 in knowing that while the outcome of our situation may seem uncertain to us, God most certainly always knows what He is doing, and what He is doing is always good. 

What we must remember is God’s plan always has a greater purpose. When we ask God and the Holy Spirit to lead us, we must trust Him, even when He is leading us on a path we don’t understand. I leave you with these verses. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) We may not understand God’s way, BUT we must conclude that His ways are always the right ways and He will work things out for our good and His glory.