My plans vs. God’s plans

by | Feb 19, 2017 | Faith Blog

I’m a planner by nature. I plan out all the things I intend to do, usually days or weeks in advance. I had made all my plans for what I needed to do this particular Saturday, and there were a lot of items on the to do list. Some of them routine, some out of the norm and fitting some fun at the end of the day. Great. My daughter loves to be out and about, so this was going to be great. Until Saturday morning came.

Saturday morning at 3:00am to be exact. I reached over and touched her, not something out of the norm. What was out of the norm was her warm body. Hmmm. I kept checking her body throughout what was left our sleeping time. Yup, it’s definitely a fever. When she woke up, much later than normal, she made a request, turned over and fell back asleep. Typically when she wakes up, she’s up, and that’s it. I mentally started canceling things I had planned to do. No sabbath school – to allow her the extra rest. I would have stayed home from church as well, but I needed to be there and I had given my word that I would be. So, one plan I couldn’t change. I sent another text, and canceled another plan.

I decided to wait until later in the day to see how she was feeling before I canceled the last one, as it was going to be much later in the day. By early afternoon, I realized that that plan too would have to be canceled.

Her fever broke late last night, and she’s woken up already being close to her normal self. And it got my mind rolling.

How many times do I make plans for my life and expect God to simply follow what I’ve decided to do? Hmmm. While it’s a rhetorical question, I’ll answer anyway. Too many times. I make plans without consulting God and expect Him to just comply with what I think are good plans for my life.

Isaiah 55:8 states the following: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

I’m learning that I can make all the plans that I want, but only God’s plans will prevail.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that your ways are not our ways. Thank you for keeping us out of our own way. Lord, help us not to be disappointed when our plans don’t work out according to our will, but instead to seek you and your will for our lives.