Slated For Something

Planning is an integral part of our everyday lives. “Better to be safe than sorry” is a mantra that we live by. We plan for everything – vacations that we’ll take next year, our career paths, even things that are not in our foreseeable future.

But often we forget to include a very important part in our intricate plans. We forget to put God in the center of it. Psalm 94:11 says, “The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile”. We can plan and plan all we want but it is God who has the ultimate say in everything. “Many are the plans in a human heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21). Our plans will not always stand the test of time or the test of resilience. They will not always be possible and we will eventually experience disappointment. “But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (Psalm 33:11).

The Bible has several stories of people whose plans were not realized simply because it was their plan for themselves and not God’s. The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) is one such story. We see a man who has yielded an abundant harvest. He deems himself secure for many years and now plans to just lie back; eat, drink, and be merry. But God has planned something else for him. That very night, his life was to be taken back. What, then, will happen to all the things that he has planned for?

We have to look no further than God’s Word to realize that God has everything under control. He tells us not to worry about anything because in the end, it is His will that will prevail. And His will is always so much more beautiful than ours. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “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”. This passage is so reassuring because it tells us that we do not have to rely on futile human plans, there is a greater plan that has been made for us ever since the beginning of time. When we do plan, let us remember to look to God for his guidance in every step we make and allow Him to be at the center of everything that we have to do. The Bible instructs us to, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans”(Proverbs 16:3).

Most importantly, let us commit our lives for His purpose and His will. God has prepared good things for us and He is our infinite reward. In Isaiah 14:24, God promises that “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen”).  Keep in mind that God’s ultimate plan for us, the one thing that resounds throughout scripture, is our salvation.