O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

"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. Jer 29:11

This verse has been on my heart this morning, especially as I consider the situations of dear Christian friends around me. There is death and pain, sickness, financial loss, marital strife, struggles with addiction, and almost every other kind of sorrow that you can imagine.

I used to believe that this versed promised "good things" to me if I was a believer, but then I studied the verse further and realized that God gave this verse to his people while they were in captivity. Why were they in captivity? Because they had rejected God. The lessons that I take from this are:

1. God loves me even when I am unfaithful to him. GOD IS FAITHFUL EVEN WHEN I AM NOT!!!!! HELLO IS THIS THING ON?!?!?
2. My circumstances may not be the "prosperity" or "hope" that I had planned. It might actually feel like harm, but God knows what he is doing.
3. God will not allow the bad, ugly things that are a result of living in this sinful world from making me a NEW CREATION. Nothing can stay in the way of HIS plan for me or for any of His Children.

Lord, THANK YOU for your faithfulness to your unfaithful child. Please help me to trust in your promises. Help to desire your will for my life, even though it is painful sometime. Help me to encourage my friends and family that are in the midst of things that do not seem "good".

There is a song that we sing occasionally that I really love that expresses some of these thoughts and feelings even better than I can.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be.

O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
my heart restores its borrowed ray,
that in thy sunshine's blaze its day
may brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
and feel the promise is not vain,
that morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms red
life that shall endless be.