Ephesians 1:3-9 (NASB1995)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the 5 kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him.
The verses above are very thick and dense with Holy Spirit’s desire to convey the heart of God for us to us. I believe a Christian could read, study, meditate, ponder, and pray over these verses for their entire life and not really obtain all the revelation available here. In this post, however, I want to focus briefly on one phrase. Notice in verses 5 and 9 that God has “kind intentions.” God is intentional. He has purposes. He has plans. And His intentions, purposes, and plans for His children are full of kindness. If you are not familiar with the following scripture verse, Jeremiah 29:11, I urge you to memorize it and declare it over yourself often.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)
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.
Jeremiah 29:11 (AMPC)
For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
There is so much of the heart of God revealed in this verse. First, the prophet Jeremiah clearly states that He has plans for us. God told Jeremiah that He knew him and called him before he was formed in his mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5). God made, created, and prepared plans for each of us. Second, these plans are to prosper us and give us hope and a future, not for our harm. The New American Standard Bible says that God’s plans are for our welfare and not for calamity. The Amplified Classic Bible expands this verse to say that God has “thoughts and plans” for us and that His thoughts and plans include welfare and peace, not evil. In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul states that His plans are “kind intentions” and Jeremiah prophesies that they are for good, not evil. The God of the universe is thinking about each one of us with purpose and that purpose is to bless us.
Before God told Jeremiah that He had known and called him from the womb, Kind David, in Psalm 139, also declared this foreknowledge.
Psalms 139:13-18 (NLT)
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
The God-lover and God-worshiper, David, announces to all humans that God has written in His book about all our days before we live one of them. God has plans for us and He thinks about us. His thoughts about each of us “outnumber the grains of sand.” Apparently, there is not a moment of time that the Omniscient One is not thinking of us. The enemy often bludgeons some precious saints with thoughts that no one cares about them, no one sees them, and they are utterly alone in this world. He torments some with lies that they are unnoticed, unappreciated, invisible, and alone. From a natural perspective, it might be true. Although tragic, there are people who are deeply lonely and have no one. But the good, good news is that the Holy Scriptures plainly state that God has us on His heart continually. He has so many thoughts about us they outnumber the grains of sand.
Jesus also states that we are on God’s mind and that He knows us intimately.
Matthew 10:29-31 (MSG)
“What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.
God pays great attention to each of us. We are on His mind. And His intentions for us are good.
Ephesians 2:10 (NASB1995)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Not one of us is an afterthought or an accident. Each of us was lovingly and intentionally created for God and for good. God has prepared good works and a good life for us. One of the most amazing and startling scriptures for me is in Matthew chapter 1 when an angel visits Joseph to give him instructions regarding taking Mary as his wife.
Matthew 1:21 (AMPC)
She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus [the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, which means Savior], for He will save His people from their sins [that is, prevent them from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God].
We are not alone, adrift on this planet, trying to survive. Jesus gets involved with us and prevents us from failing and missing the true end and scope of life! In John 17, there is a record of Jesus praying for us and the content of that prayer. Take some time and read the prayer carefully. Ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you all the ways our kind heavenly Father is working to answer this prayer in your life. We can surrender our days, our lives, our efforts, our flaws to Jesus and He will come and put a stop to failure. Receive His help beloved and receive the good plan created just for you.