READ: JEREMIAH 29:1-14; PSALMS 37:1-6; 139:1-24

Are you or someone you know graduating this year? While a graduation is a momentous occasion, what follows is the question: “What are your next steps?”

When I graduated from high school, it was the general expectation that you went to college. Being an adventurous non-planner, I left for a college that was located over twelve hours from home, not even sure what I wanted to do, but assuming I would figure it out along the way.

You might be like me, or you might be more like my son. He just finished high school with the ultimate plan. He’s interning at a tech company while setting up his own business. His life is well-planned, from his first vehicle to his finances.

Often, I wrestled with being “in God’s will.” What was He trying to tell me? What if I didn’t listen hard enough? What if I missed the grand plan He had for my life? Other people might wrestle with inviting God into their plan. What if He calls me to do something other than what I want? What if He calls me to do something or go somewhere I feel unqualified for? What if God’s five-year plan doesn’t mesh with the plan I have laid out?

If you’re wrestling with questions like these, I have good news. Whatever type of graduate you are or will be, I can tell you the best next steps you can take in your life! Before you think I’m presumptuous, or even nuts, read Jeremiah 29:11-13, emphasis on verse 13. Did you catch what God said? “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Seeking God is your best next step, and the step after that, and the one to follow.

Many people refer to Jeremiah 29:11, and the hope and future God promises us. But then they forget to include the surrounding verses, where God tells His people they are not going to be delivered from exile for a long time, but His people will seek Him and pray to Him, and He will listen and be found. It’s easy to worry about our plans and God’s will. But what is the will of God? For us to have a relationship with Him through trusting in Jesus, to know His love more and more deeply, and to be transformed to become more and more like Jesus. Every plan of our hearts, every question about our future—everything pales in comparison to seeking the one who created us and knows every intimate detail about our past, present, and future. • Savannah Coleman

• Do you tend to be more of a planner, or a non-planner? How could you be intentional about seeking God in His Word, through prayer, and with fellow Christians?

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

READ: EZEKIEL 36:16-38; PHILIPPIANS 2:5-8

Which is better: a heart of stone, or a heart of flesh? To be honest, some days I want to choose the stone. A heart of stone doesn’t feel pain, and it doesn’t have to bend to anyone else’s will. It seems strong and immovable, impervious to hardship and unchanged by anything it comes up against. But the truth is, a heart of stone is basically useless. Stone can’t pump blood or sustain life. A heart of flesh serves the body, nourishing and strengthening it with freshly oxygenated blood. A heart of stone serves nothing, nourishes nothing, and strengthens nothing.

In Ezekiel 36, God calls out Israel’s sin—their idolatry, injustice, and stubborn refusal to follow His commands. But He also promises to cleanse them of their sin. He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (verse 25-27). In ancient Hebrew, the word translated here as heart refers to more than one’s feelings. It refers to all of one’s internal life—thoughts, feelings, desires, and decision-making. All of these take place in the heart. So having a heart of flesh doesn’t necessarily mean we have a lot of feelings—though that can certainly happen. It means our thoughts, feelings, desires, and decision-making have been cleansed and forgiven and made alive by the Holy Spirit so we can put our faith in God and place our confidence and hope in Him. Then we can be moldable, humble, teachable, and willing to let ourselves be fully shaped by God and His good ways.

Having a heart of flesh feels risky. It requires opening ourselves up to pain. Jesus knows what that’s like. Jesus, God the Son, allowed all His desires, thoughts, feelings, and decisions to be shaped completely by God the Father, even when it led to the cross. We betrayed Him, and He still kept His heart soft because of His great love for us.

Jesus will never betray me, but other people have. And when Jesus tells me to love them anyway, it helps to watch Him do it first. I can walk forward with a living, soft, obedient, easily bruised heart because I’ve seen Jesus do it. And if we know Jesus, His Spirit lives in us, and He’s given us a heart of flesh so we can respond to His love. And that is way better than any stone. • Taylor Eising

• How can looking at Jesus help us live from the heart of flesh He has given us?

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 (NIV)

READ: JOHN 1:1-14; COLOSSIANS 1:15-20; REVELATION 21:1-6

In my life, there are many starts and stops. I start a new hobby, and I finish a TV show. I wake up and start my workday, and I end the day by going to bed. At the start of my life, I came into being. And eventually my days on this broken earth will end.

In the last book of the Bible, Jesus calls Himself “the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 21:6). This name signifies the completeness of God. Alpha and Omega are actually just the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These Greek letters work like a metaphor here. It’s similar to saying you sang the alphabet from A to Z.

Jesus was there at the beginning, before time began, and He played an important role in creation. John 1:3 says that everything was made through Jesus.

Jesus is also the end of all things. He is the end to sin and suffering. Jesus ended the power of sin and death in His own death and resurrection. And Jesus will be there at the end of time to bring justice down and right the wrongs of the world.

It’s important to remember that Jesus is God the Son, and when He calls Himself the Alpha and the Omega, He is helping us better understand who He is. God does not have a beginning, or a starting point. God has always been. Similarly, God does not have an end. God is eternal, and in Jesus, we can share that eternal life in His new creation. • Naomi Zylstra

• When Jesus returns and makes all things new, everyone who has put their trust in Him will live with Him forever! As we experience the many starts and stops of life, how could it be comforting to look forward to eternal life with Jesus, when sin and brokenness will finally come to an end?

• Are you starting something new? How have you seen Jesus present with you in this new beginning? Consider spending some time in prayer, asking God to help you see how He is working in and around you.

• Endings can be sad, scary, and difficult, but Jesus is always Lord, and He rules over every beginning and every end. How can this truth give us hope when we experience endings?

This is what the LORD says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies: “I am the First and the Last; there is no other God.” Isaiah 44:6 (NLT)