A New Year, A New You

Many of you no doubt have made many New Year’s resolutions for 2009. I have made some myself. I cannot believe that today is January 15th, 2009 and it is already half-way through the first month of the year. Many of us have already had setbacks on our resolutions that we have made. I encourage each of you to stick it out and make 2009 a breakthrough year for your life!

At Dresden First Baptist Church, we have begun a weekly memory verse program and I would like to expound a little bit on the first week’s verse – Jeremiah 29:11-13.

The verse gives us such hope and encouragement: “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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all of your heart.”

This speaks to each of us as you look ahead to 2009. Many of us have many plans, hopes, dreams, and thoughts about what this year is all going to be about. But guess what? God has a plan for you as well. As a matter of fact, God’s plan for your life is so perfect, that no one or nothing else in the entire universe could give you a better plan for your life than what God has in store for you!

One might say, “Well, this verse just really does not apply to me, because you see, I am hopeless. I have made too many mistakes. There is no way God could ever use me! Why would God have a plan for someone like me, who has failed him so many times? I am way too insignificant. I am only a such and such in little old Weakley County, TN.”

I understand that fear and frustration, for I feel it myself many times. But this verse lifts me above it. Because, the Word of God in this passage was initially directed to a people who had just been defeated and sent into exile. Look at verse 1; you see that it reads, “These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”

You see, the recipients of this letter were not rich; they were not famous; they were not comfortable, they were not even home! The recipients of this letter had just witnessed the invasion of their own country by an evil nation and the siege and destruction of their holy city, Jerusalem. The Temple of the LORD had been destroyed, and the people had been exiled to the land of Babylon. This was the most dire of situations. Where hopelessness should have reigned, hope sprang anew through Jeremiah’s words. This reminds me of the words of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3, after crying out in mourning to God over the desolation of Jerusalem, Jeremiah writes, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

No matter where you find yourself in 2009, always remember, God has a plan for you! Isn’t that reassuring!?

How do we catch that plan? Easy:

1. Call upon God
2. Pray to Him – pray to Him that His will shall be evident to you. Allow God to work in your life. God promises to Hear you.
3. Seek Him out – with all of your heart – and you will find Him.

In 2009, let Your Plans be God’s Plans. Have a prosperous 2009!