31 Days - Joy in hope

My daughter and I went to Panda Express for dinner tonight - I just love their string bean chicken and black pepper chicken.  After eating, I cracked open my fortune cookie.  I always get a chuckle out of the fortunes inside.  But tonight, when I opened my cookie....it was empty.  No little slip of paper.  How disappointing.  I even posted a status about it on Facebook.  Later in the evening after having to drive four hours to rescue one of my sons, I read all the comments left on that status.  Humorous little bits like "Good luck.  It was nice knowing you." and "You get to decide your own future." and "Aawww."  And then this one...."AAACK! That's okay. The Big Guy already knows your fortune."

Ah, yes.  The Big Guy does.  

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


Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?   Matthew 6:25-27

And then, this one:

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.   Lamentation 3:25

Now, I wasn't REALLY worried about the fortune in my cookie.  But, I do know where my true hope and fortune lies...right smack in the middle of God's hands...not some fortune cookie.  God knows me.  God knows my entire future.  He knows the moment I will die and pass from this human life. 

I may not know what's in my future.  I didn't know this morning that I was going to have to drive to a town two hours away to help my son get home.  I don't know how God will use me next week or what will happen next month.  But I know the One who does.  He gives me all the hope I need.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.    Romans 15:13