Jeremiah 29:11-13 (English Standard Version)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Strange as it may seem God exists in the eternal finished works and the plans He has made for us are set in stone. They will not change.

Some of those plans have already played out for some of us. For all of us who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ that plan of salvation has begun and we are experiencing how that plan works out for us as we live this life of faith. That salvation plan is in motion and will continue to be a force in our life until we return home to Him.

Welfare means different things to different people. The KJV calls that “thoughts for peace”.

I am restless at the moment. That is a sign to me to seek Him. 

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

When I finished posting Parrots yesterday the Holy Spirit brought this passage into memory.

It is a shorter conclusion than what I wrote. Why didn’t I use those words?

My first guess would be in my struggles with Paul’s wording, but if I am going to be honest with myself, James isn’t my favorite author. His style struck me as legalistic in a time I feared legalism. I always thought James might have been a lawyer.

That is not fair to James or the truths he shared with us. I have allowed my fears to avoid precious truths and for that I have been wrong.

Praise God that the Holy Spirit knows the scriptures better than I do.