[Orig. pub. Oct. 23, 2016 on Ramblings of a Bluestocking]
Ok, let’s be raw. I’ve always been a very driven person. In college, I knew what degree(s) I wanted, where I would be in ten years, what kind of job I wanted, and what kind of man I wanted to marry.
However, if you haven’t had this happen at some point in life, you will: the sudden realization that everything you have worked for or imagined hasn’t panned out how you always planned. In the career field you have always dreamed about, you tend to make “top 10,” “top 2,” or “top 4” on numerous interviews, but never “number one.” In the dating field, you end a long term relationship and still find yourself in a man desert.
Yes, this is this time in life where you get Jeremiah 29:11 thrown in your face quite a bit: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” While a powerful verse that presents a truth that is often repeated, if you live long enough, at some point, you will find yourself questioning what those good plans are and if they will ever take place.
I’ve rolled questions like that around for a couple of months now. However, one verse I came across recently has been my mantra for this season. This life line comes from Proverbs 23:18: “Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” This is such a simple verse which I’ve read over countless times.
So when you’re in a job desert, dating desert, relationship desert, (insert desert name here), and you don’t know what those future good plans are nor when they will be fulfilled, “there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off” (Prov. 23:18). Sometimes we focus more upon the destination than the journey. Sometimes, we just need to be reassured that there is a future and a hope, regardless of whether or not we see it in the tangible now.
“Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” – Proverbs 23:18
Proverbs 19:21 states, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Currently, the plans in my mind are many; I’ve contemplated so many life plans it would make your head spin. But thankfully, “it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand” despite the 783,983,546 plans I contemplate. As an ENFJ on the Myers-Briggs scale, I love to plan. So I’ll keep planning and know there is a future. If my God is big enough to close the doors I thought were right, He’s big enough to open the one He knows is right.