Don’t Miss Your Invitation

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for goodness, not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV)

This Bible verse was one of the first I learned by heart. And I got tired of hearing it, quite frankly. I came to avoid using it and saying it and reading it and listening to it. I had the t-shirt but tossed it.

I think I felt this way because the moments it was repeated to me were the moments I was the most frustrated with my situation.  I got more comfort out of pouting at God than leaning into Him. I was more interested in getting the attention of others to get my moan on rather than focusing my attention on God and what He was doing in my life.

[Tweet “God is always doing something in our lives, you can bet the farm on that.”]

Then, in the spring of this year, my small group began studying Jeremiah, and the words of this tired passage nagged at me again.

How can His plans be so terrific when the past two years have been spent in hospital waiting rooms and fielding bill collectors’ calls, I wondered? Where is the goodness, the bright future, when all I can see is uncertainty? Have you been here? Are you wondering how such a loving God could allow you to have such a messed-up life?

His Spirit began its merciful council, unfolding the truth right there inside my heart, like petals gently opening.

He knows the plans; I have only to walk forward in them. And they are His plans, not mine, so some of my mess is my doing for sure.

I must trust Him. Even if some days it’s with gritted teeth and white knuckles, I must trust that He is who He says He is. Love is a decision, a conviction; it’s not always candlelight and sunsets. Even with God—because of me, not because of Him. He stays the same; I am the one who changes.

I can call on Him. He hears me. It’s that simple.

I need to look for Him in my world. When I do, I find Him. He was there in the smile of my six year old first thing in the morning, in the crinkle of the pages of my Bible, in the text messages from a prayer warrior lifting me up without me asking. He wants to reveal Himself to me, and if my life were all roses, T-bone steaks and swimming pools, I would completely miss Him.

My focus needed realigning. My mind needed changing, and my life needed purpose. I look back at the path I have walked and see how His hand poured out blessings along the way. I have found all that I sought and more.

Now I understand that a calling, a life purpose, is not one thing, but many. It is the stuff underneath the thing that makes it important. He uses my stumbling for His purposes, to give me a future and a hope in Him. The life I live is the result of that.

And He wants me to share it. My purpose is to give words to the work He does in me, so another might see His work in her.

What a lovely purpose. What an amazing plan. What an almighty God.

Don’t miss your invitation. Don’t be distracted by your life so much that you can’t see the purpose in it.

His plan is to prosper you in spite of yourself.

 

Noelle Morin is a bossy, slightly introverted, coffee-addicted, redheaded aspiring writer. Having met Jesus at 31 years old, she is a second chance pro, late bloomer, do-over daughter of God, and she is ever thankful He loved her first. Noelle has been married for 13 years to her husband, whom she met on a blind date. They live in Texas, where she mothers their four boys and works full time as an occupational therapist.

Photograph used with permission from, and copyright of, Michelle Lenger.