Beyond Youth

Sometimes life feels a bit like playing UNO. You don’t get to choose which cards you’re given. Sometimes you get really good cards and everything seems to be going well, and then suddenly someone gives you a +4 and everything changes! Life can be like that too. Sometimes things happen that we didn’t expect and definitely didn’t choose. We can even wonder… “Why is this happening to me?!”
The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 29:11: “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.”
I LOVE THIS VERSE! I know it was meant for the Jewish people, but in Jesus we can rejoice for Paul tells us: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
I find this really encouraging because it reminds us that God knows what He’s doing even when we don’t understand what’s happening. Even when things go wrong, He still has a purpose for us! Think about Joseph in the Bible. His brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery. He went through some really horrible stuff, and I’m sure there were times when he wondered what God was doing.
But eventually Joseph was able to say: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” Genesis 50:20 Joseph couldn’t see the whole picture while he was going through it. But God could.
I think we can be the same. When we’re going through something difficult, we often only see what’s happening right now. We don’t know what God might be doing in the future. King David went through difficult times too. He had been chosen to be king, but before that happened, he spent a long time running away from Saul and hiding.
Yet David wrote: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” Psalm 23:1 David knew that even when life was difficult, God was still with him.
And that’s something we need to remember. Being a Christian doesn’t mean that we’re never going to have problems. Jesus actually tells us in John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Jesus never promised us that life would always be easy. But He did promise that He would be with us. Sometimes we might look at someone else’s life and think they’ve been given better cards than us. Maybe everything seems to be going right for them while we’re struggling. But God doesn’t ask us to compare our lives with other people’s. He asks us to trust Him with our lives.
That doesn’t mean everything that happens to us is good. Some things are painful. Some things are unfair. Some things we may never understand. But God can take difficult situations and still work through them. And the biggest example of this is Jesus dying on the cross. To the disciples, it must have looked like everything had gone wrong. Jesus had died, and they probably thought their hopes were over.
But what looked like defeat became the greatest victory. Jesus rose again, and through Him we can have forgiveness and a relationship with God. So, when life doesn’t go according to plan, we don’t have to understand everything. We can simply say:
“God, I don’t understand what’s happening, but I trust You.”
Just like in UNO, we don’t know what card we’re going to get next. But unlike a game of UNO, our lives aren’t controlled by chance.
God knows us. God loves us. God has a plan for us. And whatever happens next, we don’t have to face it alone. Jesus is with us.
God bless,
Laura 🙂