Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, "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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart."

The fifth graders at the grade school I teach know that Mr. Reynolds likes a good game of reverse hide and seek. Yes, they pay me for this. When you find the person hiding, you hide with them until there's just one or two people left walking around in the gym wondering where everybody went to and they realize that they're all alone. So on many Fridays during the school year, especially during the winter months when I'm not coaching, I'll round up some fifth graders at the end of the day and tell them that we're coming to clean the gym when in fact we're going there to play a good game of hide and seek. Now, it's an old gym. There's plenty of good hiding places underneath the bleachers and the old locker rooms and up on the stage. And of course, we turn the lights off to make it even better. And me being the teacher, I always get to hide first. Sometimes when someone finds me, I'll send them back out into the mix and have them grab one person and bring them back and then go back out and gradually bring their friends back with me until there's only one person left. And it amazes me how many times kids have walked by a whole group of seven or eight of us hiding in a in a dark corner somewhere simply because they don't take the time to push aside a tumbling mat or maybe open a door up and look a little closer.

In yesterday's devotion, we talked about delighting ourselves in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. Today's scripture talks about God knowing the plans that he has for you. And I think the desires of our heart and the plans God has for us for us are probably very similar. But for those things to happen, we need to know God. And to know God, we need to seek and find God. And we do that, as the scripture says, with all of our heart. Too often I fail to seek with all of my heart. Sometimes it might be during worship when I get too focused on the chords that I'm playing or the sound that's in my in-ear monitors. And sometimes it's when I wake up in the middle of the night, I can't be get back to sleep and I feel God nudging me or the Holy Spirit nudging me to get up around and walk around the house and anoint the doorways and pray, but I lay there under the warm covers and I don't move. Other times it's when someone crosses my path and maybe I have the the the opportunity to share the gospel and I fail to speak up. And of course there's the times I delight myself in social media when that time could have been spent delighting myself in the word or maybe in some personal worship. It doesn't mean that I don't critique myself when I worship. And it doesn't mean that I have to get out of bed every time I wake up in the middle of the night. It doesn't mean I have to give up social media, although that might not hurt. But if I truly want to be satisfied in the Lord, then I need to know the plans that he has for me because I know they give me hope and they give me a future. And if I want to know the plans that he has for me in my future, I need to delight myself in him. It's not a one and done kind of thing.

It's really more of a lifestyle. And it's a choice we make and it does involve some sacrifice, but I know there's nothing greater than the satisfaction of knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior and walking out the plans that he has for you in your life. It'd be crazy if I was hiding in the gym, but I was shouting out, "Hey, here I am. I'm in the top row of bleachers. Come and find me." And the kids would walk around like I wasn't there. But I know that's exactly what I've done at times in my life. Jesus is standing there and he's saying, "Hey, here here I am. Come and spend time with me. Come and spend time with me." And I wander around aimlessly. No condemnation there. We've probably all done that. But let's find time not just to hang out with the Lord, but to honestly and fervently seek him.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you that you know the plans that you have for us. I pray that you give us the desire to seek you with all our heart that we might discover those plans and give us the wisdom to know when our plans are not your plans. Help us to seek and to walk out daily the plan that you have for our lives. And when challenges are presented, give us the strength and the courage to not see them so much as challenges but as opportunities to see you work in and through our lives in Jesus name. Amen.