God has had a plan from the very beginning of time. His plan included a beautiful creation and, what I imagine to be, an unexplainable union of love with His people. When sin entered the world, it separated us from Him. While sin may have affected God’s plan, He continued with the plan of Salvation to reunite the perfect companionship with His people once again. We are all pieces of His plan and within it, He has a plan for each of us as well.
Plans. Life is full of them. Academic plans, health care plans, house plans, emergency plans, exercise plans, strategic plans, short-term and long-term plans, diet plans, contingency plans…the list is endless. We each have a plan for our day, our week, and our life. As hard as we try to carry out our plans, inevitably we run into snags, interruptions, and often detours.
I’ve been pouring my heart into a project for a while now; a plan I’ve been working towards for nearly a decade. I invited God to be a part of the planning process from the beginning and asked Him to not allow me to go ahead of Him as I worked steadily towards it. As the project has continued to come together, friends have been invited to help in the process. My friends have invested a lot of time, talents and advice into it, all for me. I’ve prayed over my project and with each step found clarity and peace in moving to the next step, instead of over analyzing every detail as I tend to do. The project was coming together beautifully when suddenly I felt God close the door – *click* – just like that. I wasn’t prepared for the door to shut and as it did there wasn’t a loud slam or a painful blow to the face, rather a soft, gentle close. One may think I would be very discouraged and disappointed, but in reality, I have actually found greater peace, joy and even excitement in my project since the door closed. I know and trust God’s plan is far greater than anything I could ever imagine and as beautiful as my project was coming together – I’m very excited to see how lovely it will become in His timing.
I was listening to a podcast the other day and the speaker said “Life gets out of balance when we quit before God moves,” meaning when we veer off the tracks of His plan we won’t experience the immense blessing of following His perfect plan. In other words, when we invite God to lead and direct us and then take over with what we think is best; we may still end up with something good, but not great. So knowing my future may hold some turmoil and trouble or simply a lesson in patience, I am thankful for God’s provision and protection, because in the end it will be worth every second of the wait.
Lamentations chapter 3 offered me this word, it goes like this:
22Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
True contentment and peace won’t come by chasing our dreams; rather it comes from the willingness to chase the one who gave us the ability to dream.
Be blessed, my friends, as you wait on the Lord God and Creator of all good and perfect plans,
Becky Ossefoort