Planning God's Plans?

I learn more and more every day,  while at the same time I seem to know less and less.  That is because God has a way of showing me that His wisdom is infinitely greater than my own.  It only makes sense... He's my Creator, and I'm His child.


If you are like me, you have made it a habit to pray for God's wisdom,  His guidance, His will to be done.  That's a good thing.  But I hope that while you pray for God's plan,  you don't also plan His answer... like I have found myself doing sometimes.


It's hard to take when the answer from the heavens is "No" when we want "Yes,"  "Go here" when we want to go there, "Wait" when we want to act now.  And friends, if we're really in tune, we'll know what God is telling us.  Sometimes there is no answer at all right away,  but that doesn't mean our prayer isn't heard.  Even Daniel fasted and prayed for three weeks one time before he received an answer.*  There are so many things that we are not aware of, that we don't understand.  If we are living in harmony with Him, there's one thing we can be sure of... God never misses messages in His inbox.


So when we get an answer we don't want to hear, what will we do?  Fallen human nature likes to just ignore it and pretend like nothing happened.  Maybe we'll get our way after all if we don't count it as well... counting.


Yes,  we can take care of things that way.  But we might as well quit praying.  We might as well plan on getting along on our own smarts.  What a scary thought...


I can tell you from my own personal experience that God is infinitely wiser than I am.  And  not only that,  He loves me and cares about every detail of my life infinitely more than I am capable of comprehending.  When I look in the rear view mirror at what God has done,  I can see that He really does have everything under control.  Sometimes even what seem to be disasters prove later to be the working of miracles.  And why did I ever worry? (That's another lesson.)


Stopped at a traffic light,  I once saw a bumper sticker that read, "Jesus Is My Co-Pilot."  I smiled at the irony of it.  I'm quite certain I'd rather have Him be the Pilot... I'll be the passenger.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8,9

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jeremiah 29:11




*See Daniel 10, Prophets and Kings p. 571,  The Sanctified Life p. 51