Planning Right

So 2016 gave me a big fat ‘in your face’ as it left. I had a little accident with my poor baby Olaf Blue (my car) and had a visit to the hospital (nope, it was not to visit my mother who works there). And so I spent New Years’ Eve nursing a drip while Olaf sat with a nasty bruise on his bumper. Way to end the year huh?

I was thrown out of my plans completely by these two events, financially and work wise. I had plans with what I would use my thirteenth cheque on, with a car to pay off and a qualification in the works I had my hands full. So I obviously did not anticipate a trip to my car dealership and a referral to a panel beater (who I swear charges you for all the other years you’ve never needed them). I had a cross-over service to attend and minister at, an all-night youth service to serve at...none of that when your insides prefer to play outside for the day.
So I went into the New Year with a clear reminder of Proverbs 19:21
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

One of man’s greatest struggles when it comes to God, is acknowledging, understanding and accepting God’s sovereignty. It doesn’t go down easy with us that God sits in heaven and does as He pleases (see Psalm 115:3), especially when what pleases Him doesn’t necessarily please us. But no matter how much you wrestle and fight against God and His purpose, His will and His way, His choice and His timing; He has the last say, it’s what He wants that wins in the end. It’s literally His way or the highway. So whether we like it or not, we have to accept that sometimes things won’t go the way we planned, but at those times, we have to trust Him. To trust Him that He is at work, working things together for our good even if we can’t see it.
That’s what I have had to bring myself to do, to trust God in the chaos, in the falling apart of my budget and schedule, I’ve had to trust that He saw, He knew and He was at work. That does not mean I didn’t freak out or panic or cry, but I did manage to find solid ground amongst the shifting sand as soon as I moved my eyes away from the situation and lifted them to the hills where my help comes from.

I was watching Finding Dory a week ago (don’t judge) and she said something that ministered to my heart (yes, God can use cartoons to get to you...He did say he’d use rocks). She was talking to Hank the Octopus (well technically a septopus since he lost one tentacle) who was obsessed with doing things the way he planned. At a critical moment, Dory told him to forget his plans (which weren’t going to work out anyway) and come with her. She recounted how the best things to happen to her happened by chance and not by planning them, their meeting being one of them. What she calls chance I attribute to God, because they are no coincidences, things happen in line with God’s purpose, even with the enemy’s evil intervention, God always has a plan, one way bigger than any of mine.

So on that tip of submitting my plans to God’s sovereignty, I don’t think they’ll ever be a better time to share this with you seeing that this time of the year is characterised by much planning (after a whole month of just drifting). As you plan, I challenge you to think of God, to think that He has a purpose for your life, that He too has a plan. Seek His face, synchronize your plans with His, that way they’re guaranteed to succeed.
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3

P.S: committing your plans to the Lord is not just presenting them, but it is submitting them for review; giving God right to approve, disapprove, and edit them as He sees fit.