jeremiah

Google "Jeremiah" and it'll try to guess which verse you want. And it'll guess that you're looking for 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.}
Doesn't this say something about our culture as Westerners? The verse it guesses for us in Google is one of stability, long-term planning, addressing the issue of control. It's not wrong. It's pretty spot-on actually. Being back in America, I fall into this long-term thinking, worrying about the future rather than looking to what God wants for me today. It's so easy to get wrapped up in planning the future that I so often fail to let God plan my day.

When in Ghana, a Ghanaian and I were talking about the Bible and our favorite verses. He started the conversation with "Jeremiah..." and before he could finish I shouted out "29:11 right?!" He was confused and just let out a simple "no, it's not." He opened a Bible on an end table and read Jeremiah 33:3. {Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.}

Do I live in this sort of desperation? When everything is seemingly provided for me, or when I think that I provide for myself, how can my heart be calling out to Jesus? Africans have to live in this day-to-day uncertainty, clinging to a side of God that we rarely get to witness here in America due to our cluttered and overwhelming lifestyles. The God who provides, protects, answers, draws close, the God who LOVES.

Today, I pray for a desperate soul, one that cries to Jesus daily, one that stops looking months ahead and instead just looks up.