Summer Plans
What are you doing this summer?
Traveling? Working? Nothing?
All are good. I love travel; plan to do some myself. Work is almost necessary. And surely you plan to do at least a little bit of nothing after a hard year.
How about a different question: What has God pointed you toward this summer?
Better yet: Have you asked God about His plans for your summer?
This may be where many of you click off this screen. Because, I know, you have plans for this summer. And if you go to God, He might mess them up. Right?
Well, yes.
"But I need this summer to be chill! I need to relax and make a little money and recover!" I get it. I've been there.
But hear me say this with love and compassion and all the kindness I can muster: your plans are not as good as God's.
Why? Because God's plans lead to His glory.
I studied the book of Haggai last week to get ready for my Sunday School lesson. Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians and the inhabitants had been carried hundreds of miles away, where they lived in exile. When the Persians conquered Babylon 70 years later, the new Persian king allowed many Jews to go back to Jerusalem to start rebuilding the city and, in particular, the temple. They started off strong, but then some opposition came. They got frustrated. They stopped building. The nowhere-near-finished temple sat there for fifteen years while the exiles built their own houses and began life as usual.
When they talked about rebuilding the temple, which of course had to come up when they saw their unfinished construction, they told each other, "The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt," (Haggai 1:2, HCSB). That was their opinion, not God's. So God sent a prophet, Haggai, to confront them. God had never told them to stop.
Their plans were not His plans. His plans were not their plans (Isaiah 55:8). And He had tried to get their attention by letting all their work to plant and eat and drink and earn money fail. They still didn't catch that God was trying to get their attention.
So God said to them through Haggai, twice, "Think carefully about your ways," (Haggai 1:5, 7, HCSB).
I'm saying the same thing to you today: How well has it worked to do your own thing? Think carefully about your ways:
Are you able to bless others?
Do you receive power and peace from God?
Are you certain of your path and your next move?
Are you excited about tomorrow and next week and next month?
Is there fulfillment in what you're doing?
Can you see God's hand in your everyday activities?
Because YOU CAN...If He's the one leading you.
Think carefully about your ways.
God loves you. He knows not only what is good for you, but best for you. He never intended for you to just make it through the summer; He wants you to
GROW.
FLOURISH.
BLESS.
In Him.
And I bet, if you're still reading, you know what it is that God has for you. I'm not saying that you're wrong to take that job or that trip or that vacation. I'm saying don't lock God out of your plans.
I DARE YOU to spend all day tomorrow asking Him over and over, "God what are your plans for me this summer?"
It may not be completely different from your plans; it may just be in addition. He may have a Bible Study He's leading you to do. Or a book He wants you to read. It may be a relationship He wants you to start or strengthen. He may be calling you to memorize scripture like a madwoman. Or spend an afternoon every week with kids who need to know that somebody loves them.
Or He may tell you that He's got something totally different from what you thought and this may be your very first big step of faith to say no to what looked like good plans.
And say YES to GOD'S PLANS.
You know Jeremiah 29:11: "I know the plans I have for you...plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope..." (HCSB). But did you know that God said this to the very people who would be taken from Jerusalem to Babylon? Those words, which can apply to us today, were originally for those men and women who were allowed to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple!!! HE HAD PLANS FOR THEM, and they had decided their plans were better.
What about you?
THIS IS FAITH, girls! Believing that God's plans for you are better than your plans for you! That He knows not just more than you, but He knows everything!
He has plans for your summer. ASK HIM what they are.
Step out in faith when He reveals them to you.
And get ready to glorify God. THERE IS NO GREATER BLESSING.
HEY! Maybe part of His plans for you are to come to my Bible Study! For high school and college girls in Dickson, TN, it's May 26-29 (Tuesday through Friday). We're going to meet from 9:00 until 10:00 (hopefully I'll know where tomorrow), and I'll give you stuff to work on your own at home. It will be great! You'll learn so much! Please just let me know you're coming.
@leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
Traveling? Working? Nothing?
All are good. I love travel; plan to do some myself. Work is almost necessary. And surely you plan to do at least a little bit of nothing after a hard year.
How about a different question: What has God pointed you toward this summer?
Better yet: Have you asked God about His plans for your summer?
This may be where many of you click off this screen. Because, I know, you have plans for this summer. And if you go to God, He might mess them up. Right?
Well, yes.
"But I need this summer to be chill! I need to relax and make a little money and recover!" I get it. I've been there.
But hear me say this with love and compassion and all the kindness I can muster: your plans are not as good as God's.
Why? Because God's plans lead to His glory.
I studied the book of Haggai last week to get ready for my Sunday School lesson. Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians and the inhabitants had been carried hundreds of miles away, where they lived in exile. When the Persians conquered Babylon 70 years later, the new Persian king allowed many Jews to go back to Jerusalem to start rebuilding the city and, in particular, the temple. They started off strong, but then some opposition came. They got frustrated. They stopped building. The nowhere-near-finished temple sat there for fifteen years while the exiles built their own houses and began life as usual.
When they talked about rebuilding the temple, which of course had to come up when they saw their unfinished construction, they told each other, "The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt," (Haggai 1:2, HCSB). That was their opinion, not God's. So God sent a prophet, Haggai, to confront them. God had never told them to stop.
Their plans were not His plans. His plans were not their plans (Isaiah 55:8). And He had tried to get their attention by letting all their work to plant and eat and drink and earn money fail. They still didn't catch that God was trying to get their attention.
So God said to them through Haggai, twice, "Think carefully about your ways," (Haggai 1:5, 7, HCSB).
I'm saying the same thing to you today: How well has it worked to do your own thing? Think carefully about your ways:
Are you able to bless others?
Do you receive power and peace from God?
Are you certain of your path and your next move?
Are you excited about tomorrow and next week and next month?
Is there fulfillment in what you're doing?
Can you see God's hand in your everyday activities?
Because YOU CAN...If He's the one leading you.
Think carefully about your ways.
God loves you. He knows not only what is good for you, but best for you. He never intended for you to just make it through the summer; He wants you to
GROW.
FLOURISH.
BLESS.
In Him.
And I bet, if you're still reading, you know what it is that God has for you. I'm not saying that you're wrong to take that job or that trip or that vacation. I'm saying don't lock God out of your plans.
I DARE YOU to spend all day tomorrow asking Him over and over, "God what are your plans for me this summer?"
It may not be completely different from your plans; it may just be in addition. He may have a Bible Study He's leading you to do. Or a book He wants you to read. It may be a relationship He wants you to start or strengthen. He may be calling you to memorize scripture like a madwoman. Or spend an afternoon every week with kids who need to know that somebody loves them.
Or He may tell you that He's got something totally different from what you thought and this may be your very first big step of faith to say no to what looked like good plans.
And say YES to GOD'S PLANS.
You know Jeremiah 29:11: "I know the plans I have for you...plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope..." (HCSB). But did you know that God said this to the very people who would be taken from Jerusalem to Babylon? Those words, which can apply to us today, were originally for those men and women who were allowed to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple!!! HE HAD PLANS FOR THEM, and they had decided their plans were better.
What about you?
THIS IS FAITH, girls! Believing that God's plans for you are better than your plans for you! That He knows not just more than you, but He knows everything!
He has plans for your summer. ASK HIM what they are.
Step out in faith when He reveals them to you.
And get ready to glorify God. THERE IS NO GREATER BLESSING.
HEY! Maybe part of His plans for you are to come to my Bible Study! For high school and college girls in Dickson, TN, it's May 26-29 (Tuesday through Friday). We're going to meet from 9:00 until 10:00 (hopefully I'll know where tomorrow), and I'll give you stuff to work on your own at home. It will be great! You'll learn so much! Please just let me know you're coming.
@leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com
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