“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
But it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
Proverbs 19:21
My husband is a planner. Both of his parents are planners. My children are planners. They all have great satisfaction from putting together a plan, talking about the plan, and executing the plan. You never have to wonder what to expect when we go on vacation together or even when we will go on vacation. It is talked about well in advance of the actual vacation. All the plans are put into place way before the vacation happens. There is not a lot of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants in our family. Plan are very important. The thought process is that the more that things are planned, the greater enjoyment there will be in the activity and everyone will know what to expect.
Planning so everyone knows what to expect and knows what to pack helps everyone to be prepared, but what happens when the activities don’t turn out quite how they were planned. What happens when the Lord has a different plan than what we did?
There are a few things to consider in this instance.
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God is Sovereign.
The more we trust in the sovereignty of God the better we can handle the abrupt changes that may thwart our plans. James tells us in James 4:15 “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” We should make a plan, but always understand that God is ultimately in control of the outcome of our plans. He is the One that allows change to happen in our plans. It is His purpose or His will that will ultimately be fulfilled. It is not our purpose or will that will ultimately direct our days.
This thought should also be a comfort to us as we face various decisions in life. As we seek earnestly God’s will for our lives through His Word and prayer, we can be encouraged about our choices. If our choice goes against God’s Word, we know that this is not God’s will for our lives. God has given us many wise people that we can consult with when faced with a life altering decision: our parents, our pastor, or wise mentors.
At the end of the day, if we make a choice that does not go against God’s Word, but is not the “Purpose of the Lord” He is sovereign and can change the course of our lives. No experience that happens in our life will be wasted.
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The circumstances of life reveals our hearts
Whenever we have a plan that does not turn out how we intended it to, God wants to use that detour of our plans to mold us to be more like Jesus. That circumstance or change of plans will be used by God to reveal what is in our hearts. When our plans do not go how we had intended, we are like a spilled glass. Whatever is in the glass will be what comes out. If we have water in our glass, water will come out. If we have selfish desires in our hearts, what will come out of our lives will be anger or despair.
Our selfish desires reveal that we are holding too tightly to our plans. Our selfish desires reveal that we know what is better for our lives, and we think that God’s plans are not the right plans.
It is hard to be “thankful in all circumstances” (I Thess. 5:18) when our perfectly laid plans are foiled, yet God says we are to be thankful in all circumstances. When we meet a foil in our plans with anger, resentment, despair, or anxiety we are in essence telling God that His plan for our lives is wrong.
So what is the answer? Plan in pencil.
Planning helps us to use our time wisely, but we must not hold so tightly to our plans that we get frustrated, angry, depressed or anxious when they do not go as we had anticipated.
God’s purposes will stand whether we want them to or not.
