Our Gracious God Has Plans For You Series

Our Gracious God has plans for you

Jeremiah 29:11-29:13

It’s the first Sunday of June 2015, and this month we will be focussing on the Supernatural Stream of God’s Grace.

Our God is a God of Grace and this morning I want us to consider: God’s Planning, God’s Purpose, God’s Provision and God’s Presence in our lives.

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As an introduction let me tell you a story about a salesman I know called Peter.

Peter loves driving around the country on business, but it’s not the driving that he likes the most.

There are other things that he likes to do before he even gets in the car and starts the engine.

Even though he has a top of the range Sat Nav he loves looking at maps.

He gathers information about his destinations, and he researches and plans every trip.

He works out his mileage and probable petrol consumption and costs, he uses TripAdvisor to work out which hotel he will spend the night in, and where he will stop for lunch or comfort breaks on his journey.

Peter loves to have a detailed scheduling, and he even creates a list of everything that is packed into his suitcase.

Now, you may think that is a little weird, especially if you’ve never done any of those things before you have driven somewhere.

Maybe your thinking that some of them are actually a necessary thing to do.

Every trip you take, every excursion you make,

every walk out the door needs some type of planning, doesn’t it?

A trip to the local shop, a trip to the supermarket, or even a trip to a restaurant has some amount of planning involved.

If not, you’ll either not take enough money, or you’ll spend too much.

I’m sure there are probably some of you thinking that planning really isn’t that important.

Maybe your attitude is that no matter how much you plan, things could still change or go wrong, so what is the point of having a plan.

Yes, stuff could happen, but, that does not mean you should just Let things happen that you could avoid.

For example:

If you never plan to check the engine oil in your car, the engine will burn up and stop.

Or if you never check the pressure of your tyres you could lose control on wet roads.

Let me ask you a few questions - You don’t need to call out the answers - just think them through:

In all of the plans you have made so far this year, how many of them included God?

Have you planned to spend more quality time with Him?

Have you planned to spend more time reading the Bible or fellowshipping with other believers?

Have you planned to spend any time serving God in practical ways?

You see, if you just let your life run its course and never make any plans,

then maybe there will come a time when you look back on your life and say “I haven’t really accomplished anything for myself or for God.”

In our daily lives it’s easy to just be busy,

we can always find something to do,

we can occupy every waking moment with stuff,

but never really accomplishing anything.

When I worked in London, I used to work with a guy called Mike.

We often had people running up to us trying to get us to do something for them really quick, when they should have planned to do something a long time before.

Mike used to tell them “You’re failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on our part.”

Some people just leave things too late and never plan ahead.

Imagine if Noah had waited for it to actually start raining before beginning construction of the ark.

None of us would be here today - everyone would have been wiped out by the flood!

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Someone once said, “Failure to plan, is actually planning to fail.” It doesn’t have to be that way.

Do you know that our Gracious Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for you?

Listen to Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

Powerful words. Let’s consider God’s Planning.

The amazing thing about these verses in the book of Jeremiah is that God gave this prophetic word when everything was going wrong in the lives of His people.

In effect God tells them His people, “Don’t worry. I know everything’s going to turn out right.”

One thing I have learnt over the years is often God’s plan is different to what I thought it would be.