Your Plan or God’s Plan?

4/6/03

 

2 Tim. 4:6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Paul is ready to go

his life has worth

his life has fulfillment

his life has purpose

he anxiously awaited what was ahead.

God wants us to live a life that has meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and worth. He wants us to be ready to go when the time comes. And the Lord wants us to anticipate the joy that awaits us when we leave this life.

This is not a fore fetched idea, it is the will of God!

Let’s start at the beginning of your life, as a matter of fact, let’s start before your life began!

You had worth even before you were born! God knew you long before you were born or even conceived! He knew you, thought about you, and planned for you.

Jer. 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Is this truth only unique to the prophet Jeremiah? Of course not!

Ps. 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Every abortion destroys a person, not a fetus! A person who God ordained to have a purpose in life!

Someone could ask, if God created me with a purpose how can man interfere with that? That’s why God gave us a free will. That’s why evil does prevail on the earth!

Is. 30:1 “Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;

² who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.

Man has the choice to do evil but when God wants to draw a line He does so. If He didn’t, man would have annihilated all of humanity already!

Is. 19:3 The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.

Job 5:12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.

Ps. 33:10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. ¹¹ But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Why wouldn’t someone want to live out the plan that God has designed for them? The answer is simple. Satan has deceived them through his lies and deceit!

Selfish ambition puts our plans above God’s plans. Self determined plans without God’s guidance is foolish in every respect.

Ja. 3:16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

If you want God’s favor, God’s blessing, then walk in His plan for your life!

Being in God’s will for your life produces peace, fulfillment, a productive life and God is honored by what you do.

Don’t think that being in God’s perfect will means you will be in some full time ministry.

Ex. 35:30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, ³¹and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—³²to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, ³³to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic craftsmanship. ³⁴And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. ³⁵He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them master craftsmen and designers.

Rom. 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

What if you have lived most of your life doing your own thing and now you feel it’s too late, you have already made so many mistakes?

It’s never too late!

Jer. 29:11 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. ¹²Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Often we assume that God is unable to work in spite of our weaknesses, mistakes, and sins. We forget that God is a specialist; he is well able to work our failures into his plans. Erwin W. Lutzer (1941– )

Let’s look at some of God’s principles for divine guidance.

Pr. 16:1 To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.

(Message Bible) Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word.

Pr. 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

(Message Bible) We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.

Years ago I read a statement that Bob Mumford wrote that has never left me: “Guidance comes as we walk in faith and not sit and doubt.”

Pr. 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

To “Trust in the LORD with all your heart” you believe the following:

My Lord and Savior Jesus knows what ‘s best for me.

God’s will for my life is perfect, good and acceptable.

Only being in the will of God will bring fulfillment in my life.

I might think I know what I want, but it will only leave me empty.

To acknowledge God means that I do nothing apart from Him.

Pr. 16:3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

When we commit what we do to the Lord Jesus, He makes the adjustments necessary for the plans to succeed.

Pr. 15:22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

A wise person seeks wise counsel.

Pr. 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

To be diligent means: showing persistent and hard-working effort in doing something

Are you living out your plan for your life or God’s plan for your life?