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"Plans to Prosper and Not to Harm..."

My favorite verse in the Bible is Jeremiah 29:11, in which God promises that He knows the plans he has for us, plans to propser and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. I had always imagined this to mean that, in many ways, life would be "good" for one who follows God's plan for things. I would have come to understand, in a very real way, the true meaning behind God's plans to prosper, and not to harm, and to give hope and a future.

I am currently waging a battle against cancer. I am only 32 years old, and my cancer diagnosis came as a shock. I often ask all those unanswerable questions of why this had to happen to me, why God chose to let this cancer come to me, rather than sparing my health and all of the havoc this cancer has brought into my life. Every day, I am in pain. I am exhausted. There are many days when it is a struggle just to get out of bed in the morning, let alone function throughout the day.

I look at these things, this "harm" that has come into my life, and I wonder where God is in all of this. Where is the prosperity in having cancer? Where is the prosperity in having a health crisis wipe out everything you have? Where is the hope in an uncertain prognosis? And what is to come of my future?

Yet, in the midst of it, God speaks in His still, small voice, assuring me that He is propsering me. He is giving me prosperity in my soul, which far outweighs any material prosperity I may have yearned for up to this point. I am learning what it truly means to have a peace that passes all understanding, and what it is to prosper as my soul prospers. I am learning the sweet and secret joy of finding my hope in Christ alone, and relying on the joy of the Lord to be my strength. I am learning that my future is in His hands, so I can trust whatever that future brings.

Has He harmed me? I can truly say with all sincerity, He has not. Rather, He has taken me into this valley so that the mountaintop will be all the sweeter, the vistas all the more breathtaking. He has greatly blessed me by allowing me to walk through this trial, so I may help others as they walk through their trials. In allowing this injury to my life, He has blessed me with a measure of grace I would not otherwise have known. He has truly prospered me and not harmed me, and I do have a hope and a future in Him.

"Lord, You are good, and Your mercy endures forever."

Learn more about this author, Stephanie Mccown.
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