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The Best Laid Plans…

By May 12, 2022December 7th, 2022Devotional

Ok… I had this great post all planned out and here I sit realizing that it really isn’t what the Lord wants me to write about tonight. I could say that I was tired, but I have my second wind and I have a feeling that I won’t be tired until I complete my post for this evening. In fact, for a few minutes I thought about asking for a pass tonight and not really writing at all. But it was clear to me that the idea of passing just wasn’t the correct answer for me or for our readers. In fact, God sort of drove that point home by encouraging a business friend of mine to contact me after nearly twenty years of silence since we last worked together.

He feels God tapping him on the shoulder about moving on to a new assignment but he is anxious about it and is tired of waiting. It was after my last post on Divine Callings that he was impacted enough to contact me and reach out for help on how to process everything that is going on. It was quite an encouragement for me to hear that and it came about because God’s touched his heart through these posts.

As many of you know, my process involves just waiting until I feel compelled to write about something and I keep a list of ideas that I think would make great topics for TBTB. It also occurs to me that the best laid plans, with all great intent and planning, sometimes just don’t materialize the way we thought they would. Such is the case tonight.

Therefore, I am trying to figure out what to write about that is timely and relevant. As it turns out, the topic of plans and things going awry fit very well into the theme of the day…

I think the same thing is true with our faith lives and the way we deal with God. We ask for help, God sometimes delivers us from whatever we were praying for (which He doesn’t have to do, by the way) and things still don’t turn out the way we thought they would. I have learned throughout my life that I have to be careful what I ask for, because many times that is exactly what I get. In other words, I really don’t turn it over to God and ask Him to decide the way things should go – I set the agenda and ask God to deliver… not really the best way to approach the Creator of everything.

I don’t want you to think that anything bad has happened. We are all good – but patience is clearly on the menu for me this week. Every so often I need to be reminded of whose purposes matters here -and it sure isn’t mine. The verse for tonight is one that I am aware of but should read more often. Solomon, the author of Proverbs reminds us, in Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails.” What a great verse to memorize!

My encouragement this evening is that we all work for the Lord. When we lay out plans for what we intend to do, God loves it when we run our thoughts past Him for approval. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I fail to do that. My prayer is that we may all be reminded to slow down a little, realize who is in control – and then submit our plans for approval with humility and a willingness to change course. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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