Many of us love to plan. We plan our days and keep a tight rein on our calendars. Every day when I start
my work day, I check my calendar to see how many meetings I have so that I can plan my day around
them and prioritize my work. Inevitably, at some point in the day, I receive an instant notification to join
an impromptu meeting right at that moment! Let me tell you, it is not a welcome surprise! It throws a
wrench in those very neat and tidy plans of mine.
Isn’t that often times how life takes us by surprise? We want everything very well planned out and
organized to fit our picture of how things are supposed to be. We make our plans and ask our Heavenly
Father to bless them, please and thank You. However, that is not how we should live as followers of
Christ.
Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:21
The goal of our lives is to glorify God in all that we do. Therefore, before we make our plans, we should
seek our Heavenly Father, sit at His feet and ask Him to guide us, to direct our steps and to strengthen
us for the call He has on our lives. We are to seek His counsel in all things and submit to His plans and
purposes for us. He has a plan for each and every one of us and it is up to us to listen to His voice and
obey. It is up to us to decide whether we are going to go our own way or surrender to the ways of the
Lord. Are we going to hold so tightly to the picture of how we desire things to be or are we going to love
the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and all our minds (Luke 10:27)?
To love the Lord is to obey Him! To love the Lord is to say, “Have your way!” It is to say have your way
even though I really like my way. I really like the plan I have laid out for my life. Yet, I know that my
Creator, the God of the Universe has a much better plan for me than I could ever imagine.
When we make a conscious decision to disobey God, choosing to ignore His instruction, it demonstrates
that we have not put Him in His rightful place in our lives. We are putting ourselves above Him. We are
trying to be our own god.
In the Old Testament, we read about Jonah, a servant of God who chose to disobey Him.
The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against
it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Jonah 1:1-3
Now many of us are very familiar with this story. Jonah had no desire to go and preach to his enemies.
He had his own plan so he ran away as if He could escape from the Lord. We know that Jonah ended up
in the belly of a fish for three days as a consequence of his actions. Have you ever told your kids, go to
your room and think about what you did? Well, Jonah, a child of God had three days to ponder on his
disobedience to the Lord.
I realize this is an Old Testament story and you may think that you cannot relate to this. God may not
cause us to end up in the belly of a fish for our disobedience. However, there is always a cost to
disobedience. Our disobedience causes separation from God. Deliberate disobedience separates us from
fellowship with Him.
Everything we do is to honor and glorify God. We cannot glorify Him in disobedience. I believe that may
be why the Lord sometimes feels very distant from us. We need to examine our plans, our motives, and
our hearts. Is our allegiance to ourselves and our own selfish desires or to our merciful, loving Father?
He gives us everything we need to live a godly life. He give us His Word, which is alive and active and His
Holy Spirit to direct us. He gives us each other to encourage, sharpen and rebuke when needed. We
must decide daily to take up our cross and follow Him. We must decide to humbly surrender to God’s
perfect will for our lives.
In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the LORD establishes their steps.
Proverbs 16:9
When we align our plans to His, He establishes the way for us. Please understand that this does not
mean that we should not plan. We should prayerfully and carefully plan while abiding in Jesus, staying
connected to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide us. We should desire what our Father desires for
us because He is able to establish a far better plan than we can even comprehend!
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his
power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Father God, thank you for having a loving plan and purpose for our lives. Thank you for allowing us to be
a part of your amazing eternal plan. Thank You for giving us Your Word and Your Holy Spirit to guide us
in living according to your will. We may love to plan but we humbly yield our plans to you. We do not
know all that lies ahead for us but you do. Help us to love you and trust you enough to loosen our grip
on our own plans and the picture of the life we think we should have. You are sovereign, unchanging,
omniscient and so merciful and kind. You are perfect in every way! You love us immeasurably and desire
an abundant life for us. Thank You, Lord! Help us to remember that your plans will always be better than
ours! Yet not my will but yours be done! I love you! I give you all the honor, praise and Glory! In Jesus’
Mighty Name, Amen!
Written by Lanette Black, IWM blogger, Intercessor and Speaker
