jars of clay

Plan: (v.) to arrange a method or scheme beforehand for (any work, enterprise, or proceeding).  

Planning, I believe, is an intrinsic nature to humans.  We are taught at a very young age to prepare and engineer our future.  Plan for college: get involved in extracurriculars,  achieve good grades, befriend teachers.  Then after those arduous, hard-working years of high school, plan for "the real world": get a job, save money, go to a good college, get good grades, network.  The culmination of our education depends all upon this planning and has actually freaked me out a little bit.  Yes, i do realize I have oodles of time to figure everything out but, during this time of deciding majors and dreaming about vocations I have passion for, I can't help but become entangled in figuring out my "plan".  

Luckily for me, I read a little passage earlier tonight that really spoke to me.  God gave me a reassuring tap on my shoulder through this amazing book called Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Frances Chan.  I had just began reading a chapter entitled "Forget about His will for your life".  This title really perplexed me for I had constantly leaned on the comfort of Jeremiah 29:11.  Upon reading this chapter I truly understood what Chan was trying to portray.  He was stating exactly what I had been feeling earlier today; getting caught up in the worry of the future.  

This is what Chan writes, "I think a lot of us need to forget about God's will for my life.  God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading TODAY, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year.  In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now, in today's decisions."

This truly hit me like a pound of bricks, I was so taken aback by this amazing and real truth.  God loves me so much that there is no possible way that He will ever lead me astray.  My future is secure in His hands.  He promises so many times in the Scripture to never leave or abandon me and, as long as I listen to His words today, right now, this very moment everything will be OK.  What is The Spirit telling me right now? Am I even listening?  I have the most amazing Person in the WHOLE WORLD living inside of me, helping me each and every day, yet do I acknowledge Him?  

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this

all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are

hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, 

but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck

down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our

body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also

be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always

being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life 

may also be revealed in our mortal body.

(2 Corinthians 4:7-11)

I pray that I stake EVERYTHING on God in this moment, in this day.  I pray that I no longer feel uneasy about the uncertainty that lies ahead.  I pray that you allow the Spirit to move through me every day and set my heart focused on You.  I pray that you hold my heart and my hands through my daily journeys with You.