Thoughts God Thinks For You in 2006

Thoughts God Thinks For 2006
Thoughts of Hope
Jeremiah 29:11

A few years ago a missionary on furlough was invited to preach one Sunday at a Presbyterian church. After the worship, this missionary ascended to the pulpit, opened his Bible and looked out on the congregation. He began to preach saying, “I am called…” but before he could get the rest of the words out of his mouth, he dropped dead of brain aneurism.

We recently heard of the pastor in Waco Texas who was, in front of some 500 Sunday worshippers, including his own wife and small children, and electrocuted himself to death while performing a baptism.

Life is but a vapour. We are so invested in this life and in our plans for its continuation and we often appear oblivious to the fact that it could be snatched from us in an instant.

The New Year is a great time of year because it feels like a clean slate, a fresh start. It’s an opportunity to reinvent ourselves- to go on a diet, or change our hair style, or maybe finish our degree- or whatever.

In the new year, I like to go out shopping for a new ‘day timer’ and take it home and start writing important dates in it and making plans and then I start thinking of resolutions for the New Year and…well, you know how it goes.

But then, after a few weeks our zeal gives way to the reality that it is just a continuation of previous year. That was the attitude of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes. Look what he says: (Read Ecclesiastes 1:1-11).

But is the Preacher’s pessimistic and depressing view of life true for the Christian? I don’t think so. I want to encourage you this New Year and regardless of whether or not you keep your New Years resolutions, I want you to remember that you have something to hope for in 2006.

Turn to Jeremiah 29 (Explain context and read 29:4-7).

Now we need to be careful that we don’t read this passage outside of its original context and reduce the literal way that God intended it to be read by the original audience by spiritualizing it to suit our desires. Remember that this letter is written to encourage the Judean exiles in Babylon some time around 600 BC. Among whom were Daniel and Ezekiel.

But there is a principle at work here and it is applicable to Christians because all scripture is God breathed and profitable for doctrine and for instruction (2 Tim 3:16). Not only that, but the Old Testament promises are “a shadow of the good things to come” (Heb 10:1). Those promises are all yes in Jesus (2 Cor 1:20).

You see, we who are Christians are exiles in the truest sense of the word- in a double way. We are exiles from the world because we belong to Christ and so the world has nothing in us (Jn 17:14).

But we are also exiles from heaven because, as the saying goes, “to be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord” and therefore, “while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.”

So then, this life is one of exile. And in our exile we share in the affliction as well as the promise of these Babylonian exiles who were but a shadow of the church of God. We can apply principles from Jeremiah’s letter.

How do we in 2006 live in exile? Jeremiah offers some suggestions:
• Build houses and live in them. In other words, plan for the needs of this life. Aspire to live healthy and at ease. It is not un-Christian to increase in wealth and possessions. To some God gives the grace of poverty and to some He gives the grace of wealth.

St. Paul never aspired to poverty nor to wealth and yet he experienced plenty of both and could say, “Whether in riches or in poverty, I Can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

• Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage. In other words, ‘Have fun and enjoy the passages of life. They are a gift.’

• Multiply there and do not decrease. Live and prosper and use what God has blessed you with for the glory of God.

• Seek the welfare of your city. Pray for this city. Get involved in making this a good place to live.

I really like verse 11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

The NIV translates it this way: “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.”

The plan of God was much more then just to restore the remnant of Israel to their land, it was the plan to redeem them and not only them, but us too. The promise of verse 11 is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ- not at the Manger, but at the Cross.

How fitting for us to remember this New Years Jesus’ saying, “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10). I cannot guarantee that you will have a materially prosperous New Year. I cannot guarantee that you shed the few extra pounds that you hope to lose this year.

I can’t even guarantee that you won’t break your New Years resolutions by the time this day is out.

Here’s one thing I can guarantee because God promises it. He has thoughts for you- a plan for your life. And if you are a Christian, that plan is for you to have life more abundantly- both abundant life in the here and now of 2006 and also life eternal. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).
You see the thoughts that God has for you and his promise of abundant life in the here and now of 2006 has for its aim the ultimate fulfillment of conforming us to the image of Christ. That means he is actually reshaping us to be like Him in obedience, and meekness and love and holiness….

So in 2006, whether we lose 10 pounds or not, whether or not we quit smoking, if we finally have victory over whatever sin… or not - God is at work in you who have the promise of the hope sealed in your heart. He will not break his promise.

Martin Luther said, “I only mark two days on my calendar, this day and that day. And as long as it is this day I pray that God will enable me to live it for that day.”

“Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom. And we all with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:17-18).

This New Years I can tell you two things that are guaranteed: First, no matter how bad 2005 was, you are closer to the fulfillment of God’s thoughts for you, you are more like the image of Christ, then you were in 2004. The other thing I can guarantee to you is that by December 31st, 2006, you will be even more like Christ then you are today.