Jeremiah29:11-13, “For I know the plans I have for you, “ declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

So often this verse is used as an answer when someone is facing struggles or heartaches in life, but it is so much more than that.  

God has a plan for your life and a big part of that plan is for you to spend time with Him so you can know Him.  He wants to have a close relationship with you.  He doesn’t want to just be put on the shelf and then pulled out to fix everything when things go wrong.  Yes, He does want to help us when we have storms and heartaches.  He wants to heal your broken heart and He wants to show Himself mighty in your life, but He wants so much more for you than that and it requires seeking Him with your whole heart.  He wants to guide you in all that you do.  He wants to be your strength, your rock, your deliverer, and He wants to lead you into all that He has planned.  Too often we want the plan but aren’t willing to seek Him when things are going well and then we wonder why everything falls apart.  

When you have to make a decision how do you do it?  Do you spend time in prayer, seeking God and His answer or do you just do what other people think you should do or what feels right at the time?  I would like to encourage you, if you aren’t already, to pray about it.  Ask God to show you what to do and to help you not make a mistake.  Ask Him to put Godly people in your life who can help you when you need to make big decisions, but be careful to make sure that you are still seeking God’s answer.  Make sure that the advice you are given by others lines up with the Word of God and that you aren’t just blindly following another person.  Seek God’s answers in prayer and by spending time in your Bible.  

Reading your Bible is a key part of knowing and following His plan.  Too often people seem to think of reading their Bible as drudgery or a duty, not as something exciting.  If you want to get excited about reading your Bible then you must start.  You aren’t going to get excited about something you aren’t doing.  If you haven’t been reading your Bible I would suggest starting small with maybe just a few verses in Psalms or find a book in the Bible that you will enjoy.  Pick one that has a storyline that you can follow, for example:  If you are a woman, maybe the book of Esther or Ruth.  If you are a guy you would probably really enjoy the stories of all of the battles in 1st and 2nd Samuel.  The key is to start somewhere and allow God to speak to your heart through His Word.  There are no hard and fast rules and you don’t have to read the whole thing in a year, just read it!  You can’t be passionate about something you never experience so don’t waste another day.  Start today knowing that truly then you can know that His best is yet to come!