Imagine with me that someone you trusted has taken you to a house you do not recognize and told you there is something very valuable in the basement of that house. All you must do is go in and get it. But as you enter the house, you discover there is not electricity and it is very dark. Your trust in the one offering the valuable item is strong; you believe the offer is genuine and the result will be worth the struggle to get it. However, the task seems daunting due to the unfamiliarity of the house and the total darkness consuming it.
Your first attempt of a solution is to simply walk into the structure and hope for the best. You soon find this to be problematic as you run into and trip over things and make little progress. Your next idea of a solution is to go back to your friend and ask for any assistance he could give. Maybe he could describe the layout of the house to you or even give you a source of light to guide you.
In Jeremiah 29:11-13, God gives us this promise, “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. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” For some, this passage represents a mystery. How could we possibly know what God has planned for our lives. It’s like entering an unfamiliar house in the dark in search of treasure. We keep bumping into obstacles.
As in our illustration above, as men pursuing God more fully, we trust him enough to affirm his promises are true. We know he DOES have something good in store for us and we know it IS valuable and worth our effort to discover. Yet, like the dark house, the path we are to follow seems unfamiliar and difficult to navigate.
The solution to this problem of discovering God’s plan for my life is the same as in the problem of the dark house. I need to go back to my friend who offered the treasure and ask for a diagram and a source of light. Of course, that friend is God and the diagram and light are offered through his inspired holy Word.
The layout of the path, the plan to discover God’s will is clearly defined. God calls us to pursue holiness. He challenges us to seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and then he will be free to reveal everything else to us. We sometimes get this backward. We are so busy chasing our own desires and trying to discover or own plans, God can’t get a word in edgewise. This doesn’t mean we’re chasing sinful desires; it simply points out that we are distracted by our own plan to find life’s treasure.
Seeking the Kingdom of God and his righteousness first reveals the second tool in the search for God’s plan. The light of God’s Word will illuminate our path. God cannot show us new truth until we are living in the truth he has already revealed. Like a flashlight in a dark house, our path may be illuminated just one step at a time. We can’t see what’s in the next room until we have worked our way through the first one. Sitting and waiting for God to drop his plan on us from heaven will never work. When we aggressively walk in the light we have, he will provide more.
God’s promise is true. God’s plan is a treasure worth pursuing. God’s diagram for reaching the treasure and lighting the path to that treasure is available. All we need to add is our commitment to pursue God first and allow him to reveal his plan as he desires.