NACR Daily Meditation for Monday, Jul 21, 2003

21 Jul 2003 07:00:02 -0000

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NACR Daily Meditation for Monday, Jul 21, 2003

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"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans
to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

Hope is about the future. It may be oriented to the next hour, or the
next day, or the next month or year or decade. But hope is always about
anticipation.

Those of us who like to control things often find hope difficult because
we do not control the future. Many of us are compulsive makers-of-plans.
We are willing to work ourselves to death trying to make our plans become
reality. But when our hopes and vision for the future are based only on
what we can control, our vision is inevitably narrowed and impoverished.

We need to remind ourselves regularly, therefore, that God's vision for
the future is better than our own. God sees possibilities and opportunities
that we cannot see. The horizons of God's imagination are not bounded. When
we root our hope in God, a totally different future is possible. It is not
a future we can control. God's plans may not be the same as our plans. But
we can return again and again to God as our source of hope.

God has been clear about our future. It is God's intention to give
us a hope and a future. This is not a promise of a trouble-free life. It
is not a promise of immunity from struggle. But it is a promise of hope.
God has been with us in the past. God is with us in the present. And God
will be with us in the future.

Thank you for paying attention to my future, Lord.
Thank you for making plans.
Help me today to rest in the thought that
your plans for me include blessing.
Open my heart today to the hope and the future 
you have prepared for me.
Amen.

Copyright 1991 Dale and Juanita Ryan

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