GOD HAS A PLAN !
“God has a plan” is one of the famous sayings in my house. My wife says this to our children about every concern or plan or issue that does not go exactly as we hoped, planned or dreamed. For everyone, 2020 has been the most unusual year . . . but God has a plan!
Someone said to me that the church has been a little like the Israelites in Exodus wandering in the desert! And I replied, yes very much so – we are wandering in some ways and not sure exactly where we are going and many people just want to go “back to Egypt” when God is really trying to prepare us for “the promised land.”
“And Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out from this place . . . He swore to your fathers to give you , a land flowing with milk and honey. ‘ “ Exodus 13:3-5
COVID has changed and challenged us in many ways as a society and as the church. COVID has definitely made us more creative. But God has a plan. God has used COVID in many ways to strip the church of our perceived need for a building, a set program, all the traditions and cultural things that we have constructed and think of as “Church”. Many of these things are just that – our culture, our traditions – not necessary bad, but also not necessarily Biblical or even necessary though we like them and enjoy them.
While we are trying to adjust to a new normal with COVID restrictions and challenges, some of us really just want to go “back to Egypt.” We want to go back to the familiar, the normal, the traditions, and our preferences. However, God has a plan in all of this. Perhaps, God is trying to prepare us for something better, the Promised Land, Heaven – the next life, His imminent return. God was with Israel through all the desert wandering – guiding, protecting, providing, presenting the Law, and preparing them for the promised land and revealing His Glory. God is with us!
Jeremiah 29:10-13 reminds us that God has a plan! 10 “For this is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for ]prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Remember COVID = Christ Offers Victory in Death. John 11:25 “Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.” In Christ, we have nothing to fear.
Be assured as we move into the 2021 New Year – God has a plan! Let us seek the Lord with all of our heart! The Great Commandment. Let us seek to share the Gospel and make disciples! The Great Commission. Every blessing to you in the Lord Jesus as you seek to serve Him this New Year.
~Marty Dupree
