God Has Good Plans For You. Believe it. | Isaiah 43 & Jeremiah 29

Welcome to the Recovered Christian, the podcast for believers who want to break the chains of addiction and live a recovered life. Join host Suzanne Bloomer each week as she shares her personal journey of recovery, provides encouragement for yours and takes a deep dive into the scriptures. God wrote a book, and the Bible is full of hope, wisdom and practical applications for all of us. So whether you're just starting on the road to sobriety or are hoping to take the first step, this podcast is for you. Tune in each week for a biblical shot of courage and let's recover your life, one devotion at a time. Now here's Suzanne with Today's Show.

Welcome to the Recovered Christian. This is Suzanne, and I'm so glad you're here. Can God truly change our lives? Can he take a wasted, dry, barren life and turn it into something beautiful? Is anything too hard for Him? Is anything too big or too small for Him? God wrote a book, so let's hear what he has to say about that. Here is Isaiah 43, verses 15 through 20. I am the Lord, your Holy One, israel's Creator and King. I am the Lord who opened away through the waters, making a dry path through the sea. I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses. I drew them beneath the waves and they drowned their lives, snuffed out, like a smoldering candle-wick. But forget about all that. It is nothing compared to what I am going to do, for I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun. Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and the owls too for giving them water in the desert. Yes, I will make rivers in the dry wasteland so my chosen people can be refreshed. He opened away through the waters. He called forth mighty armies, and that is nothing compared to what he is going to do. I love verse 19 so much it says for I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun, do you not see it? How many times do we not see what God is doing on our behalf All the time? Have you ever had an answer to a prayer, but it is a long time later and maybe not what you thought it would be? I sure have, and in my case it's always been better. Have you ever thought that when you are stuck in traffic, god is protecting you from an accident up ahead? Or if you go right instead of left, it's him directing you away from danger? God does his best work behind the scenes and we don't know it, we don't even acknowledge it half the time and we certainly don't thank him. I'm going to do an episode soon about how God and the Holy Spirit worked in my life, how events that changed the course of my life were orchestrated in such a way that it totally blows my mind. Still today, I had asked for one thing, and it didn't happen then. But when it did happen, God had already worked out so many details that I had been worried about and what I had asked for became something bigger and better. I heard someone say that God works in them. Meanwhile, all we see is what's happening here in the natural. We don't see all the goings on in the spiritual, where God and His angels are at work on our behalf. We see our daily struggle, meanwhile God is busy putting all the pieces into place. Jeremiah 2911 says For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you, says the Lord. Wow, he has plans for us, good plans, happy plans, not plans to leave us in the pit of addiction, full of despair and heartache. No, god has plans for a future full of hope. If we look for Him with our whole heart and that is the key we can't go halfway. We need to go all in and lay it all down. If we look for Him with our whole heart, he will listen, we will find Him. Are we looking for Him? Do we look for him when we are in trouble or sad or brokenhearted, or do we try to go it alone? He says he will be found by us, and if God says it, you can believe it to be true. God does not lie. Luke 1.37 says If God says it, believe it. In Genesis we find the story of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, wrongly jailed by a scorned wife and rose to the second highest position in all of Egypt. God gave Joseph the ability to interpret Pharaoh's dream about a seven-year famine that would affect the whole region, including his brothers and his father Jacob, and this dream gave Egypt the opportunity to prepare. After 20 years of separation, his brothers came to Egypt to find food. There are some twists and turns in the story, but eventually Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and they freaked out and here's the second most powerful man in all of Egypt and they sold him into slavery. As a boy I'd probably be freaking out too, but not Joseph. He told his brothers in Genesis 45, verses 4 through 8, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery into Egypt, but don't be upset and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you, and he is the one who made me an advisor to Pharaoh, the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt. God had a plan for Joseph from the very beginning. Even while Joseph was thrown in the cistern by his brothers, even while he was stuck in prison for something he didn't do, even when he was separated from the father that he loved for years and years, god was working on Joseph's behalf and his family's behalf. After his father, jacob, died, the brothers decided Joseph would take revenge on them. Why do we always have to think the worst of people? The brothers threw themselves down in front of Joseph and said we are your slaves. But you know what Joseph said Don't be afraid of me. Am I God that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. No, don't be afraid, I will continue to take care of you and your children. Joseph lived close with God and understood that God worked for the good of him and many others. What others meant for harm, god used for good. What the devil means for harm, and there are many things he will use against us, god will use for good. God changed Joseph's life completely. He took a scared teen and elevated him into a man of power and wealth. In what I love most about Joseph compassion and humility Joseph could have wiped his brothers off the face of the earth with just a word, but he didn't. He didn't hold a grudge and he didn't blame. He saw the supernatural workings of the Lord and chose to honor him in what he did and said. We can learn so much from Joseph. There are so many others in the Bible where God took a broken life and made it whole. What about Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho who saved the Israelite spies from being caught by the authorities? She sent them in looking for them on a wild goose chase, which allowed the spies to safely escape the city and return to their people with information. Rahab, the prostitute who ends up being the great, great, great grandmother of King David. Rahab, the prostitute, who, over a thousand years later, is written about in Hebrews, chapter 11, as one of the heroes of the faith. That's a changed life. Or Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus's closest friends, who had seven demons driven out of her. Or Saul, whose mission in life was to threaten and kill followers of Christ until God got ahold of him and transformed him completely into Paul, one of our most beloved apostles and writer of so many books of the Bible. God is working even now for you. He's working for me. We just don't always see it, we don't know it. We have to have faith that he is. There is no life that cannot be completely remade by Him. Even Saul, who watched Stephen the disciple be stoned to death and, as the Bible says in Acts, completely agreed with the killing of Stephen, even Saul was given a new life. Will God not do the same for you? For me, Habakkuk 1, verse 5 says Look around at the nations and be amazed, for I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe, even if someone told you about it. He's doing something for me, he's doing something for you, and I cannot wait to see what it is. Look around, friends, pray with your whole heart, look for Him. He said He'd be there and you can believe it. I'll see you next time.

Thank you for listening and we hope you'll join us again on the Recovered Christian.