In the "big picture," - God's perspective, He's had a plan for each of us that was made even before we were born. In Jeremiah 1:5 (NLT), God spoke to Jeremiah : "I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world." This one verse reveals that God both knew Jeremiah before his flesh existed and that He had a plan for Jeremiah's life. No doubt, this same all knowing God knew the spirits of each of us before He formed us and has a plan for us, but then He made it interesting. He's given each us the opportunity to follow the basic truths He's taught us, which will lead to His plan being worked out in our lives, or choose to follow our own will and live outside of what He intended. But the blessings of our God and the prosperity He intended for us are to be found in living according to His plan.
True prosperity has nothing to do with man's currency or material wealth. What prospers our souls for eternity is the only thing that will have value when our days here are finished. Everything else will perish. From God's perspective, this life that we have such a tendency to cling to and live for, is nothing more than schooling and preparation for the real life that He intended for us. That real life begins when this one ends. But in this life, we determine by our choice where we will spend the next life in which we will forever experience the reward of the choice we made here. Will it be what He intended ... or will it be what we chose by insisting on following our own will? We are beings of limited authority, who given instruction to reach a destination, are set on the path by the One Omnipotent. Those who choose to follow ... will arrive. Those who write their own instruction for the course... will be lost.
By His word, we know that God knew us before we were born. Because He knew us, He being the Good Father, knew what we lacked and needed to learn as His children. He could see the great potential in the raw and unattractive lump of clay He held in His hand. In His mind's eye, He could see the hidden beauty, worth and potential in each of us. So He set a plan into motion to refine and to shape us into the image that He saw that we could become. The things we experience in our lives, if we're living according to His plan, shape and mature us in ways that He knew we needed to be "prospered." But the work to prosper is not always pleasant. Sometimes if we lack understanding or trust in the hand that shapes us, the events of our lives may cause us to cry out in pain or despair. The work of our shaping may be hard to bear but the end result He holds up with great pleasure as beautiful. Because I lacked the ability to understand what was occurring, there have been times in my life when I cried out to our God angrily or fell into despair obsessed with thinking that He didn't love me. I couldn't have been more wrong and repentant tears of gratitude still fall at the thought of the tender and loving investments He's made to prosper me out of His great love for me. The work is not yet done, but I'm beginning to understand and appreciate the changes that give me form in His hand.
Each of us has the choice to appreciate the Father's investment in us and allow the loving work of His hand with trust and faith in His mastery - to shape us into His intention. Or by the choice that He's given us, we can resist His work and remain the useless lump of clay that has no end value or beauty. I can choose to endure with faith, the shaping and the heat of refinement and tempering, or remain a foul clump of useless dirt that the potter will cast out. But either way, the end result, the final product I become ... will be my choice. I prefer to know His gentle, yet firm touch in my shaping and endure what I must to become a work made beautiful purely by the work of His own hand.
Whether you've walked with the Lord for a long time or are just beginning, you may know the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. Besides the story of his fathers' love for him, there's a very important lesson to be gained from this much loved Sunday School story that may not be as celebrated and closely followed as it needs to be. Joseph was a young Hebrew man, about 17 years old when his brothers sold him into slavery. He was made a slave servant in a foreign nation - a very unpleasant and unfair situation that this faithful young child of God was forced to endure through no fault of his own.
Being a young man, full of life and energy, Joseph could have spent his time in this unjust captivity and servitude fighting for his rights. He could have fought against the injustice that was forced on him against his will and set his mind on revenge against his brothers for their terrible betrayal. He could have been consumed with resentment toward God for allowing it. But Josephs' trust in the plan of his faithful God led to him becoming second in power only to Pharaoh in the nation of Egypt. As he stayed faithful in his trust of God, God elevated him in even in the face of his situation. He became wealthy, honored and respected among the people of Egypt because of his trust and submission to the plan of his God. Joseph was young man surrendered to a power higher than even the great Pharaoh. He lived surrendered to his God ... and his God ... had a plan. If Joseph had spent his days fighting against the injustice of his situation and against the plan for his life, things would likely have turned out very differently. But Joseph remained faithful to the potter and in the end, because he continued to follow the plan that was set on his behalf, he prospered beyond what anyone could have predicted.
It doesn't always work out that the Lord blesses us materially. But the prosperity that we gain in terms of our character and preparation for our future with our Lord is lasting and the only thing that has value that we will take with us. That's the prosperity that we need to look for, value and celebrate. The rest will perish. It's entirely possible for us to be wealthy in our short time on earth and bankrupt for all eternity if we're not careful. We can wrestle against our Lord's efforts to perfect us and His perfect plan for us even in our well intentioned prayers. Note that the volumes of the Apostle Paul's rich teaching from his walk close to God's heart never reflected that he was consumed by a desire to avoid troubles. Instead, he sought only the grace to endure them. He recognized the potter's hand in his own life and the eternal true value of it. Paul recognized the value of allowing the Lord's willed plan to shape the man that he was becoming and without a doubt would have been found to pray that the Lord's will would be done above anything else. The difference between resenting God's "failure to protect us" from trouble, and trusting and appreciating His loving grace to change us, is a matter of our having a true perspective ... His.
We can choose to walk in our own limited wisdom and vision with predictable results. But surrendering our own short sighted will and limited power to accept the perfect plan that He has for our lives allows them to be guided by far greater wisdom, and walked in the unending power of our God. The choice and the resulting consequence are ours alone. As warriors for Christ in the world, I pray that we can see the wisdom in surrendering in order to walk in the greater wisdom and holy power of our God. He has an omniscient plan and purpose even in this - that some will ... and some won't. Which one are you?
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