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

When life is hard and the road seems endless, it can be hard to believe that God is working on our behalf or that He has plans for us that are good and happy. But He is and He does. He tells us so in Isaiah 43, and if God says it, we can believe it.

Listen in as I talk about Isaiah, Joseph, Rahab, Saul and how God changed their lives. He loves to take broken people and make them new. He will do the same for you. Let's talk about how.

Thanks so much for listening in today!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Recovered Christian, the podcast
for believers who want to breakthe chains of addiction and
live a recovered life.
Join host Suzanne Bloomer eachweek as she shares her personal
journey of recovery, providesencouragement for yours and
takes a deep dive into thescriptures.
God wrote a book, and the Bibleis full of hope, wisdom and

(00:21):
practical applications for allof us.
So whether you're just startingon the road to sobriety or are
hoping to take the first step,this podcast is for you.
Tune in each week for abiblical shot of courage and
let's recover your life, onedevotion at a time.
Now here's Suzanne with Today'sShow.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome to the Recovered Christian.
This is Suzanne, and I'm soglad 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 toosmall for Him?

(01:05):
God wrote a book, so let's hearwhat he has to say about that.
Here is Isaiah 43, verses 15through 20.
I am the Lord, your Holy One,israel's Creator and King.
I am the Lord who opened awaythrough the waters, making a dry

(01:25):
path through the sea.
I called forth the mighty armyof Egypt with all its chariots
and horses.
I drew them beneath the wavesand they drowned their lives,
snuffed out, like a smolderingcandle-wick.
But forget about all that.
It is nothing compared to whatI am going to do, for I am about

(01:47):
to do something new.
See, I have already begun.
Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway throughthe wilderness.
I will create rivers in the drywasteland.
The wild animals in the fieldswill thank me, the jackals and
the owls too for giving themwater in the desert.
Yes, I will make rivers in thedry wasteland so my chosen

(02:11):
people can be refreshed.
He opened away through thewaters.
He called forth mighty armies,and that is nothing compared to
what he is going to do.
I love verse 19 so much it saysfor I am about to do something
new.
See, I have already begun, doyou not see it?

(02:32):
How many times do we not seewhat God is doing on our behalf
All the time?
Have you ever had an answer toa prayer, but it is a long time
later and maybe not what youthought it would be?
I sure have, and in my caseit's always been better.
Have you ever thought that whenyou are stuck in traffic, god

(02:55):
is protecting you from anaccident up ahead?
Or if you go right instead ofleft, it's him directing you
away from danger?
God does his best work behindthe scenes and we don't know it,
we don't even acknowledge ithalf the time and we certainly
don't thank him.
I'm going to do an episode soonabout how God and the Holy
Spirit worked in my life, howevents that changed the course

(03:18):
of my life were orchestrated insuch a way that it totally blows
my mind.
Still today, I had asked forone thing, and it didn't happen
then.
But when it did happen, God hadalready worked out so many
details that I had been worriedabout and what I had asked for
became something bigger andbetter.

(03:38):
I heard someone say that Godworks in them.
Meanwhile, all we see is what'shappening here in the natural.
We don't see all the goings onin the spiritual, where God and
His angels are at work on ourbehalf.
We see our daily struggle,meanwhile God is busy putting
all the pieces into place.

(03:59):
Jeremiah 2911 says For I knowthe plans I have for you, says
the Lord.
They are plans for good and notfor disaster, to give you a
future and hope.
In those days when you pray, Iwill listen.
If you look for mewholeheartedly, you will find me
.
I will be found by you, saysthe Lord.

(04:21):
Wow, he has plans for us, goodplans, happy plans, not plans to
leave us in the pit ofaddiction, full of despair and
heartache.
No, god has plans for a futurefull of hope.
If we look for Him with ourwhole heart and that is the key

(04:43):
we can't go halfway.
We need to go all in and lay itall down.
If we look for Him with ourwhole heart, he will listen, we
will find Him.
Are we looking for Him?
Do we look for him when we arein trouble or sad or
brokenhearted, or do we try togo it alone?

(05:03):
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 ofJoseph, who was sold into

(05:24):
slavery by his jealous brothers,wrongly jailed by a scorned
wife and rose to the secondhighest position in all of Egypt
.
God gave Joseph the ability tointerpret Pharaoh's dream about
a seven-year famine that wouldaffect the whole region,
including his brothers and hisfather Jacob, and this dream
gave Egypt the opportunity toprepare.

(05:45):
After 20 years of separation,his brothers came to Egypt to
find food.
There are some twists and turnsin the story, but eventually
Joseph reveals himself to hisbrothers and they freaked out
and here's the second mostpowerful man in all of Egypt and
they sold him into slavery.
As a boy I'd probably befreaking out too, but not Joseph

(06:07):
.
He told his brothers in Genesis45, verses 4 through 8, I am
Joseph, your brother, whom yousold into slavery into Egypt,
but don't be upset and don't beangry with yourselves for
selling me to this place.
It was God who sent me hereahead of you to preserve your
lives.
This famine that ravaged theland for two years will last

(06:29):
five more years, and there willbe neither plowing nor
harvesting.
God has sent me ahead of you tokeep you and your families
alive and to preserve manysurvivors.
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.

(06:52):
God had a plan for Joseph fromthe very beginning.
Even while Joseph was thrown inthe cistern by his brothers,
even while he was stuck inprison for something he didn't
do, even when he was separatedfrom the father that he loved
for years and years, god wasworking on Joseph's behalf and
his family's behalf.
After his father, jacob, died,the brothers decided Joseph

(07:14):
would take revenge on them.
Why do we always have to thinkthe worst of people?
The brothers threw themselvesdown in front of Joseph and said
we are your slaves.
But you know what Joseph saidDon't be afraid of me.
Am I God that I can punish you?
You intended to harm me, butGod intended it all for good.

(07:35):
He brought me to this positionso I could save the lives of
many people.
No, don't be afraid, I willcontinue to take care of you and
your children.
Joseph lived close with God andunderstood that God worked for
the good of him and many others.
What others meant for harm, godused for good.

(07:55):
What the devil means for harm,and there are many things he
will use against us, god willuse for good.
God changed Joseph's lifecompletely.
He took a scared teen andelevated him into a man of power
and wealth.
In what I love most aboutJoseph compassion and humility

(08:16):
Joseph could have wiped hisbrothers off the face of the
earth with just a word, but hedidn't.
He didn't hold a grudge and hedidn't blame.
He saw the supernaturalworkings of the Lord and chose
to honor him in what he did andsaid.
We can learn so much fromJoseph.
There are so many others in theBible where God took a broken

(08:37):
life and made it whole.
What about Rahab, theprostitute from Jericho who
saved the Israelite spies frombeing caught by the authorities?
She sent them in looking forthem on a wild goose chase,
which allowed the spies tosafely escape the city and
return to their people withinformation.
Rahab, the prostitute who endsup being the great, great, great

(08:58):
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 ofJesus's closest friends, who had
seven demons driven out of her.
Or Saul, whose mission in lifewas to threaten and kill

(09:20):
followers of Christ until Godgot ahold of him and transformed
him completely into Paul, oneof our most beloved apostles and
writer of so many books of theBible.
God is working even now for you.
He's working for me.
We just don't always see it, wedon't know it.
We have to have faith that heis.

(09:42):
There is no life that cannot becompletely remade by Him.
Even Saul, who watched Stephenthe disciple be stoned to death
and, as the Bible says in Acts,completely agreed with the
killing of Stephen, even Saulwas given a new life.
Will God not do the same foryou?
For me, Habakkuk 1, verse 5says Look around at the nations

(10:08):
and be amazed, for I am doingsomething 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 itis.
Look around, friends, pray withyour whole heart, look for Him.

(10:29):
He said He'd be there and youcan believe it.
I'll see you next time.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Thank you for listening and we hope you'll
join us again on the RecoveredChristian.