Our Plans Might be Wrecked, but Life’s Still Held in His Hands

The year of 2020… wow… where to even begin on describing 2020?! To say that it is a year that hasn’t gone according to plan would be putting it lightly! Many have felt the sting of disappointment that 2020 has brought along with it, but intertwined with the disappointment is a bold string of hope that still remains. That is one thing that God has taught me over and over again, is that through difficulty, hope really does remain, and if we seek the hope He offers, we will find it.
It is during difficult, uncertain times that I have had to have some painful and honest heart evaluations. Do I really hold tight to the truths that God works all things for the good of those who love Him, that what the enemy meant for evil, God turns it for good, that God is still on His throne, and that He has a faithful, unrelenting grip on my life? As trying circumstances unfold, like they have in 2020, we have to ask ourselves if we really believe in these truths? Do I see the thick bold, band of hope that remains present or do I ignore it?

… intertwined with disappointment is a bold string of hope that still remains…

As plans change, it sometimes can provide an open window for discouragement, disappointment, and doubt to enter. As a person who is very much a planner, I have had to learn to how make my plans without having all my hope and faith invested in them. I can love my plans and have so much faith in my plans that they become the source of my assurance instead of having a placed assurance in the One who establishes all things. The minute I invest more of my heart and mind into my plans than I should, God quickly intervenes and shows me the error of my way.

In times of sudden change, I am faced with an opportunity to see the magnitude of the guarantees that God provides  me, and that they never slip away. I am faced to see that, although all that is around me may fade away, I am marked with a permanent seal of redemption, a seal that is eternal. It is in what is eternal that should encompass all of our faith and consume our hearts! Our seal, dear friends, is eternal and unbreakable because it is a seal that has been placed on lives by our eternal, unbreakable God!

Ephesians 1:13b-14
“Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance, until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of His glory.”