Recently I saw a picture of some crocheted lacy hearts. I liked them and decided to make them. I copied the instructions, prepared the yarn, and started. But something seemed wrong because the work wasn’t looking right. When I checked the pattern I found I was following it correctly, so I continued. I decided to trust that the instructions would help me produce the finished product in the picture. Happily when the pattern was followed through to the end, the result was like the picture.
It made me think about the pattern that God has set for our lives. God said to the captives in Babylon that he would set them free and bring them back to their land again. We read “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). We worship the same God and just as he had plans for His people then, I believe that he has plans for us today.
We may have a vision of what His plans might be for us. But as we’re following Him we sometimes don’t understand what’s happening because we can’t see the whole picture. It doesn’t always look like we’re becoming the finished product we imagined. We must remember God has the complete and final picture in mind. He connects us with different people in ways we don’t expect. We need to trust Him enough to keep following ‘the pattern’, which He sets out for us in His Word.
Then, one day, we will look back and see what God has done – how He has been working out His best pattern for our lives. All that’s required of us is to keep on following the pattern one day at a time and leave Him to create the picture!
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that You have a plan for my life. Help me to trust the plan You have for me, and help me keep looking to You for directions day by day. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
“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, NIV
Ellel 365 - Online Training School
Life's Decisions - Teaching CD
Tanya Person Tanya Person, her husband and three of their four children are missionaries to Hungary, and have now taken the role of Directors for Ellel Central & Eastern Europe,Developing Works, pioneering as they travel to Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and other countries, teaching Ellel Schools and overseeing the development of works in these areas. They have a passion to see the Church discipled and walking in God’s fullness of life and freedom, and to mentor the existing Ellel team.