MAKING PLANS

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)

We often try to manipulate God to get what we want. We have our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly agendas, and we try to forge God's signature on the paperwork. But God doesn't work that way. He can't be manipulated. What God wants is for us to commit our plans to Him, while always being open to the possibility that plans -- ours, not His -- can change.

It's not wrong to have plans, but why not try writing them in pencil? That way it's a whole lot easier to make changes.

-- Matt Donnelly, Christianity Online 

#5903

TRUSTING IN GOD’S PLAN

"So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we will have to run aground on some island." (Acts 27:25-26, in reference to Paul's shipwreck on the Island of Malta)

Sometimes it takes a shipwreck to get us where God wants us to go.

I believe in planning. Failing to plan is planning to fail. But when we trust our plans more than we trust God, our plans can keep us from pursuing Him and His will. And sometimes our plans have to fail in order for God's plans to succeed.

Failure (or what at the time looks like failure) can become a cage if you let it. It can keep you from pursuing the passions God has placed in your heart. But there's life after failure. The door of the cage swings open, and the Wild Goose [the Holy Spirit] calls you to a life of new adventures. 

-- Mark Batterson in “Wild Goose Chase: Reclaiming the Adventure of Pursuing God”

#5637

DON’T JUST DO SOMETHING

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him…”  (Psalm 37:7a NIV)

We are an industrious people. We always want to accomplish something. The idea of doing God’s will sounds exciting. Once in a while, someone says, “Don’t just stand there… do something.” Sometimes individuals or churches are so busy carrying out plans they think will help achieve God’s purposes that they don’t bother to find out what He actually wants. We often wear ourselves out and accomplish little for the kingdom of God.

I think God is crying out to us: “Don’t just do something. Stand there! Enter into a love relationship with Me. Get to know Me. Adjust your life to Me. Let Me love you and teach you about Myself as I work through you.” A time will come when action is required, but we must not short-circuit the relationship (Psalm 37:7). Your relationship with God must come first. Out of your walk with God, He accomplishes His plans for our world. 

-- Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby and Claude King in “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”

#5508

VISIONARY PLANS

"Where there is no vision, the people perish…" (Proverbs 29:18 KJV)

Vision. It is essential for survival. It is spawned by hope, sparked by imagination and strengthened by enthusiasm. It is greater than sight, deeper than a dream, broader than an idea. Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected. No wonder we perish without it!

Ask God to stretch your vision today… to encourage you with visionary plans as you walk in His presence. 

-- Charles Swindoll in “A Quest for Character”

#5177

CLOSED TOMBS AND CLOSED DOORS

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  (Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV)

“Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.”  (Frederick Buechner)

Frederick Buechner moved to New York to become a writer, only to find he couldn’t write a word. He tried to go into his uncle’s advertising business but wasn’t tough enough. He tried to join the CIA but didn’t have the stomach for it. He fell in love with a girl who did not fall in love with him. He writes, “It all sounds like a kind of inane farce as I set it down here, with every door I tried to open slammed on my foot, yet I suppose it was a kind of pilgrim’s progress.”

It was door closing because he was disappointed in options he wanted. It was progress because it led to him finding, or being found by, God. And in his faith he has written words that have inspired millions of others in their faith. But that door never could have opened if many other doors hadn’t closed first.

-- John Ortberg in “All the Places to Go: How Will You Know?”

#4831

GOD’S WAYS AND PLANS

Even the casual or uninformed reader of the Bible can see that God’s ways and plans are different from those of people. God uses Kingdom principles to accomplish Kingdom purposes.

God’s ways are redemptive, loving, and compassionate. His ways bring cleansing and forgiveness and build people up. His ways bring humility. His way is the way of service and love. God does not simply wait to help us achieve our goals for Him. He desires to accomplish His own purposes through us -- and in His own way.

God said, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways” (Isaiah 55:8). We will not carry out God’s plan with our methods. This is one of the basic sin problems people face: “We all went astray like seep; we all have turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53:6). It is foolish to think we can accomplish God’s work by using the world’s methodology and values.

-- Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby and Claude King in “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”


#4774

WELL-BEING IN THE LORD

“For I know the plans I have for you" -- this is the LORD's declaration -- "plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  (Jeremiah29:11 CSB)

Well-being is found in the renewal of disciplined lifestyles, committed relationships, and the receiving and giving of acceptance. To experience deep well-being is to be self-confident yet unself-conscious, self-giving yet self-respecting, realistic yet hope-filled.

-- David G. Meyers in “The Pursuit of Happiness: Who Is Happy and Why”


#4588

AN ETERNAL LOVE RELATIONSHIP

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.”  (Micah 4:2 NLT)

God intends that we follow Him. He expects us to get our directions from Him, and He wants to equip us to do the assignment He gives. If we try to spell out all the details of His will in a planning session, we’ll have a tendency to forget the need for a daily, intimate relationship with God. We may accomplish our objectives but forgo the relationship. It is possible to achieve all our goals and yet be outside God’s will. God created us for an eternal love relationship. Life is our opportunity to experience Him at work in us and in our world.

-- Henry Blackaby, Richard Blackaby and Claude King in “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”


#4576

THE ANCHOR OF HOPE

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”  (Hebrews 6:19a NIV)

Hope is called the anchor for the soul because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made. 

-- R.C. Sproul


#4466

FINDING HOPE

“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)

The future is always uncertain in human terms. But there is a God who knows the future and holds the future. He makes a promise to those who seek and follow Him. He holds a promise out for us, a promise He desires for us to accept and cling to, "For I know the plans I have for you," says God in the Bible.

How do I find that hope? In the person of Jesus Christ, who offers all who receive Him a future, even an eternity, that is certain: "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." (Hebrews 6:19)

-- Author Unknown


#4247

SEEKING GOD’S WILL

“Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.”  (Acts 16:6 NIV)

We don’t know how the Holy Spirit told Paul that he and his companions should not go into Asia. It may have been through a prophet, a vision, an inner conviction, or some other circumstance. To know God’s will does not mean we need to hear His voice. He leads in different ways. When seeking God’s will, (1) make sure your plan is in harmony with God’s will; (2) ask mature Christians for their advice;  (3) check your own motives -- are you seeking to do what you want or what you think God wants? -- and (4) pray for God to open and close the doors as He desires. 

-- from “The Life Application Study Bible”

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