For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29 Vs 11. Apart from John 3 Vs 16 – I am tempted to say this is the most quoted bible verse. Of course, I have no statistical backing for that but I have heard this scripture being prayed and taught countless times in my life. Still, what God declares to Jeremiah here is still prevalent in our lives. I have many testimonies of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Times when His plan truly was the best thing for me.
When I was fifteen, going on sixteen and still figuring out a lot of who I am as a person, my whole life was about to change. I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. I loved Jozi. The rat race that most people hate? I didn’t mind. The concrete outline of the CBD? Mesmerized me. The traffic? Okay, I did not love EVERYTHING about Joburg but for the most part, I was patriotic about calling the metropolitan my home. I had formed so many great relationships in Joburg and my life revolved around those relationships. Then came a life change like I had never expected. We were about to move to Middelburg. Middelburg, Mpumalanga – literally in the middle of nowhere. I felt like the City Mouse felt when he visited the Country Mouse in Assop’s Fables. How do you live in this small, boring…place? My plan was to finish school and GET BACK TO JOHANNESBURG. (For the record, this did not happen so…)
“For I know the plans I have for you…” God most certainly did. I lived in Middelburg for three years before I went to study. My parents still live there today. I look back at my time in Middelburg as one of the most significant times in my life. Almost as a pivot point in my walk with Christ. There are many significant factors that triggered the change in my life during that time: a relationship, friends, school and the church. Each worthy of its own blog post. Through those factors, for the first time in my entire walk with Christ, I heard that I could be in living relationship with Him. That I could actually commune with Him and do life with Him. Before that I prayed, and I believed but I had viewed Jesus as genie type of god who would grant me my wishes if I prayed the right words and believed hard enough.
Experiencing Jesus as a relational God who wants to spend time with me and wants to hear about the things that weighed heavy on me and wants to reveal Himself to me, was the best thing that Middelburg gave to me. That shift in my understanding of who God is has paved the way for me to where I am today. The people He placed in my life, the situations He used to draw me closer to Him and quiet time in His word set in motion my desire to see His kingdom come and His will be done. God brought so much healing in that time that I can’t help but want every person to know that freedom.
Don’t get me wrong, living in Middelburg was challenging for me for a number of reasons but the overwhelming goodness of God outweighs everything I ever faced.
You might find yourself questioning your purpose or God’s plan for your life but take heart in knowing that God really knows the plans He has for us and we can be encouraged that He works all things for the GOOD of those who love Him.
Pursue God – He is pursuing you.
Much love,
Hayden Hayl’
A Worship Diary 