Plans to prosper you...

Week 6:

Matthew 11:28-30 ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

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.

It is so easy for me to take the Jeremiah passage and try to apply it to my life in a material way.  Yet, when I pursue life that way, I realize that God may not have that material plan for me.  I also become focused on what I do not have and become miserable.

Somewhere recently it was pointed out to me how the Matthew passage relates to the Jeremiah passage as a prospering of the soul.  God’s plans for me may very well take me places where I am to serve.  His plans make very well allow me some pleasure here on earth.  His plan may allow me to not really want for anything material.  But, God has more in store for me than what I can do, who I can become, what I can gather, and what I can accomplish.

The soul is the place where my life is aligned with God.  Even in the midst of turmoil, my soul can be at rest.  Why?  Because God knows me…He has a plan for me.  His prospering is for my soul.  Harm may come to my physical body, but when aligned with God, the promise is rest for my soul. 

Have you ever noticed how somewhere deep inside that there is more to life than what is seen, heard, and felt?  Have you had that notion that there truly is an eternity?  Many authors point to the fact that we are eternal beings living in mortal bodies in the here and now.  The soul is the eternal part where God resides.  Some of the hope and future that Jeremiah references could very well be rest for the soul that Jesus promises in Matthew.

How do I get through the toil and turmoil of this daily life?  By pay attention to passages like these and tapping into the strength of the soul where God’s spirit speaks to mine.  That place is restful, hopeful, and prosperous and the future I long for.  That prosperity never fades and is so much more satisfying than any material prosperity.

Questions/challenges:

1.      How would you define “prosper”?

2.      How would you define “prosper” in a spiritual context?

3.      Is there a difference between #1 and #2?  Why?

4.      Describe in your own words the “soul”.

5.      What would rest for your soul look and feel like for you?

6.      Pay attention this week to what God is doing in your soul.  Journal about what comes up for you.

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