Plans
This summer has been extremely busy for me. Our church had Vacation Bible School. I went to two camps with children and students, each a week long. We took a three-day vacation to see my sister and her family. And then my wife and I went out west for almost two weeks. Because of all of the travel, I had to plan my preaching carefully. In fact, I was writing and preparing two or three weeks in advance, knowing that I would not be able to prepare while away from home.
We all make plans. We make plans for home, work, school, and many other areas of life. There is nothing wrong with making plans. As the old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”
Yet, we must realize that our plans are always subject to things outside of our control. We may have to adjust our plans. And even more important, our plans may fall outside of God’s plans for us. The Lord has ways of making us change directions when we are going the wrong way.
In his short book, James writes of those who say, “’Today we will go into such and such a town’…Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” Such a subtle change in wording, but a powerful change in attitude!
I think a good summary statement could be as follows. “All of our plans should be submitted to the Lord for review and approval.” How many of you have to submit your plans to a boss, or a manager? There are times when the plans you thought were perfect are edited and altered.
God is in a better place to see the whole picture than we are. He is trustworthy and true, and will never lead us astray. His plans are always best for us.
We may not want to say it this way, but when we refuse to allow God to tweak our plans, we are in effect saying that we know better than He does what is best. We are claiming to be wiser than He is.
I have plans. I’ve prayed about them. But I want to submit all of my plans to the Lord for His approval. He knows what is best for me. I need to trust Him.
