Lately I have been pondering plans. You know – plans of all kinds – long term, short term, strategic, five-year, selfish, unselfish, corporate level, personal, realistic and unrealistic.
We live in a world of plans and schemes and hopes and dreams. Encouraged at every turn to map out our lives and careers, we devise many scenarios. We feel pressured to articulate the steps of next week, next month, next year, and so on and on and on.
Orderliness is of God. The mathematician in me cries out on behalf of logic and regularity. As human beings created in the image of God, we ought to strive for order and design. However, we need to remember that we are just that – created in the image of God.”
God alone stands transcendent, above and outside His creation. He is, therefore, unable to fail, never confused, unaffected by wrong passion, clearly able to see the future, powerful enough to clear obstacles, wise enough to differentiate between obstacles and blessings, and loving enough to desire our best even when we cannot understand His working.
Proverbs 19:21 (NIV) declares, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
Our plans originate in our hearts. God’s purpose originates with God. I am the created. He is the Creator. I have many plans. He has one purpose.
The only way my plans make any sense is as I seek to align them with His will. And even then, in my limited understanding, I can misinterpret the will of God. I can selfishly confuse what I want with what God wants.
Let us therefore be sure to put God before the plan. To us, the plan seems so big. But the plan is so much smaller than God.
Having recently earned a graduate degree in educational leadership, I know the value of strategic plans. Having been created by a transcendent God, I know He is bigger.
If my plans come to pass because God sees fit to bring them about, so be it.
If God’s purpose supersedes what I had in mind, so be it as well.
If I exalt my ideas above His, I am hopeless.
If I exalt Him above my ideas, I may just see my ideas coordinate with His purpose!