God Has A Plan For You

God Has a Plan for You!

Jeremiah 29:11-13

We are encouraged by a leader who stirs us to move ahead, someone who believes we can do the task and is willing work with us all the way. We love working for bosses like that. We love to follow leaders who have faith in us. Who will give us the room to fail. Who will allows use to do our job yet is always there to help us when we ask. It is great to work for a boss like that. If you have never worked for anyone like that you have truly missed something.

We normally work for boss that give us instructions on what to do and right or wrong. Or have bosses that don’t have a clue what to do and just sit in their office. On the one hand you have the boss that makes you do it their way and if you succeed they are quick to take the credit and if you fail they are just a quick to blame you. The other type of boss are quick to blame their problems and failures on everyone but themselves. One will get a lot done right or wrong and the other will accomplish very little.

I remember two different stories about a piano teacher. One spoke of the student that worked hard and served under the great teacher. He practiced 10 to 12 hours a day. He put his heart and soul into the work. His Instructor would always push for the best and nothing less then perfection was going to work. The Student worked for years under the Master. The young man became a great pianist. And one day he went back home for a concert and invited the Master that had instructed him.

The day of the great concert came and the house was packed. The student played his heart out. The music moved the people and when the concert was over the crowd erupted in applause. They gave the student a standing ovation.

But as those observing the young man noticed that he began crying and left the stage. The crowed cried out on-core…on-core but the young student refused to return.

The stage manager pleaded with the young man to go back out. But he young man refused. When the Stage Manager asked the young man why he seemed so upset.

He took him to the corner of the curtain and pointed up in the balcony to an old man that was seated there. The old man was not applauding and defiantly was not standing.

The Stage manager asked who was the elderly gentleman?

With tears in his eyes the young man said that is my Master and he’s not applauding. I worked so hard to get the approval of my master but I have fallen short.

Some preachers that I know would use this illustration to tell you that you need to keep trying and God requires so much more of you then the world requires. They would tell you that the Master would be mad at you. They would tell you that God requires absolute perfection.

But that is simply not true. God is always there with His love and his grace. He is always there in our problems and in our difficulties. God is always there to wipe the mud off. God is in a fact our biggest cheerleader, Standing in Heaving an Applauding, and encouraging you to keep going. God simple wants your love and relationship.

You see that is why God created man. So that he may have a relationship with him. He created us to spend time with us. He knows that were not perfect and He is so happy that we are trying to please him. He love us even with our imperfections. That is after all what Grace is all about. He hears the beautiful music and not the mistakes. You see God sees us through the eyes of Jesus.

There is another story about a piano that is more like God to me. Charles Swindoll gives the story called “Don’t Quit”

Ignace Jan Paderewski, the famous composer-pianist, was scheduled to perform at a great concert hall in America. It was an evening to remember—black tuxedos and long evening dresses, a high-society extravaganza. Present in the audience that evening was a mother with her fidgety nine-year-old son. Weary of waiting, he squirmed constantly in his seat. His mother was in hopes that her son would be encouraged to practice the piano if he could just hear the immortal Paderewski at the keyboard. So—against his wishes—he had come.

As she turned to talk with friends, her son could stay seated no longer. He slipped away from her side, strangely drawn to the ebony concert grand Steinway and its leather tufted stool on the huge stage flooded with blinding lights. Without much notice from the sophisticated audience, the boy sat down at the stool, staring wide-eyed at the black and white keys. He placed his small, trembling fingers in the right location and began to play “Chopsticks.” The roar of the crowd was hushed as hundreds of frowning faces pointed roar of the crowd was hushed as hundreds of frowning faces pointed in his direction. Irritated and embarrassed, they began to shout: