Planning

I’m a planner. I like to map out the course of my days and check things off my list.

This time of year many of us make plans. We set goals, resolutions, intentions, dreams…whatever you like to call them. Plans and goals are good. They keep us focused, they keep us on track.

So when the plans are made, the goals are set, the dreams are dreamed, the intentions are declared, we sit down and ask the Lord to bless them, right?

Mary and Joseph had plans, good plans. They were faithful followers of the Lord. They planned to get married, to start a family, to live a good life. I’m sure they assumed that the Lord would bless those plans that they had.

But what happens when God’s plans are different from ours?

Who do you think wins that argument?

I’ll admit that I get frustrated and angry when my plans go awry. I don’t like when the course I have set gets derailed or interrupted. 

Mary and Joseph didn’t get angry. They yielded their plans to His. They obeyed the steps He told them to take. And the promise that resulted was victory over death, and the grace of salvation offered to us all.

I am (slowly) learning that yielding myself to His will, His purpose, His plans decreases the frustration with the detours of life.

God doesn’t exist to bless my plans, I exist to fulfill His.

So my “planning” looks different now. It starts with asking Him to make His desires fill my heart. That way we are both looking in the same direction. 

It continues with asking Him to show me my next step. Which then, in turn, requires my obedience and trust even when I don’t understand how it fits in. 

His plan always ends in promise, and His promises are always good because HE IS GOOD.

I encourage you this year to take a step back from your plans. Ask Jesus to show you His plan and how you fit into it. Take His hand and walk toward your promise together.

We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. 
Proverbs 16:9

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope."
Jeremiah 29:11

For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:10

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
Ephesians 3:20