Intro: For those who are listing to this message and those who are here live, many of you knew what my wife has been battling shingles and let me tell you, seeing her suffer was hard, during this process I was seeking and asking God why or how could some one suffer so much that loves you very much.
Them my mind went to thinking, God has a plan for all of us. The fact that “God has a plan for your life” is well in meaning, but often falls a bit flat to me when I’m faced with reality. It doesn’t change what I am, still in the middle of and, to be honest, we know God has plans. He created the universe, certainly He is mindful of our lives.
In light of this my mind search and my heart wondered, and I kept praying and asking God what is the purpose in all of this, and during this whole time only 4 words kept coming to my mind over and over, God Has A Plan.
So I accepted it and so did my wife and were trusting in his plan and the propose in all of this. Then it brought me to thinking What is his plan for us and what are his plans for all who trust in him and follow him.
Then I was lead to this question. Does God have a plan for each of our lives? If so, how does he reveal it? How do we hear him and discern his voice from others?”
The verse many Christians think of with regard to his plan is Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Now it might be argued that this verse properly speaks of the nation Israel and not of any individual, yet Christians rightly connect this to God’s relationship with believers under the New Testament. One this is for sure, to say that God has a plan is completely true. He is Sovereign and all knowing.
This means, as Psalm Chapter 139 says, each day was planned before one of them came to be. Because God knows everything, He already knew your poor mistakes, your choosing of sin, and the consequences that will come to be because of these rebellious choices.
He has already planned how to bring good out of our rebellion, how to bring you closer to Him through your sins. And yes, even in his plans He knew which trails your going to endure.
For many of us we usually seek to know God’s plan because as some point we have decisions to make, and sometimes they don’t want to make them badly. More so we are seeking direction, as we should, so we want to know God’s plan.
Let me say that there is something of a category error involved here. When the Bible speaks of God’s plan, it relates it to the sphere of his sovereignty and not to the sphere of our responsibility. God never tells us to figure what his secret plan is for us.
We do, however, have quite a bit of knowledge about God’s will, not in terms of the details of our lives but in terms of what obedience to him demands.
God’s will is that we should obey his Word, that we should glorify him in all things, that we should love him with all our hearts and minds and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. That is God’s plan for your life, so far as your responsibility is in view.
Reading: Philippians 1:6 - And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Prayers….
Title: God Has A Plan
God has plans. From the very beginning when He created this world, He had a plan. For day and night, heavens and earth, land and sea, sun and moon, birds and fish, animals and humans, He has always had a plan.
Just four verses into His Word in Genesis 1, we see that He likes His plan. He calls it good. Indeed, near the end of creation, He calls His plan very good.
His plan is good because of the purpose it will serve. It is good because of the hope it will give. It is good because of the lives it will save. But really, it is good simply because of the God who calls it so. Creation had only to be created for it to be called good.
But still, God has plans. He has them for you. He knew the span of your life before you were formed in your mother’s womb. He knows the hairs on your head, the thoughts in your mind, and the hours that you will live on this earth. He would not leave such attention to detail merely to chance. God has plans for you, and they are good.
Christians often wonder if God has a specific plan for their life, where they will live, what their life’s work will be, etc., and the Bible clearly teaches that God does. The question therefore becomes, “How do I know God’s plan?” The answer is that you do not know God’s foreordained plan for the details of your life, at least you don’t get to know it in advance.
The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:17 - For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Other words not by knowing what God’s plan is.
I will say in our journey through life: out the rearview mirror we can often discern much of God’s plan – although probably not as much or as clearly as we think – but out the windshield it is all faith! Listen carefully to these passages I am about to speak to you.
Jeremiah 1:5 says - “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” – God Has A Plan -
Psalms 139:13-14 - 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. – God Has A Plan -
Isaiah 44:24 - 24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, - God Has A Plan -
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. – God Has A Plan –
What does all this tell you? Folks God has a Plan and also God knew us long time ago. Long Before we were created and born we were made to be set apart.
We were approved by God. We were already accepted by Him before we were even created. We were thought of and created as His “chosen instrument”. Just as we are, He has approved, accepted, and created us just how He wants us to be.
We are His chosen instrument to be used for His purpose. We each have a calling, a purpose for our Lord.
Not only did God know us way before we were even born, but He made each and every one of us just how we are with and for a purpose!
In closing …….
The problem is, the phrase is often said in a way that assumes our circumstances will all make sense, be better, or result in perfect lives with all that we dreamt it would be in the end! But sometimes… it doesn’t.
As my wife endured the suffering and pain, I also was hurting with her, because to me their was nothing I could do. All I could do was pray to God and ask him to heal her and help her, and others I knew were also praying the same for her. But one thing in all of this and that me and her learned.
God has several plans but it all ties back to the grand plan of saving humanity from sin. It’s important for you to realize that because God’s plan won’t always look the way you think it should.
The hardest thing for many of us is not the ability to believe that God has a plan, but rather being able to trust in God’s plan. Oh, I know how it is. We read the Bible and we see all the things God has done for His people. We read His promises and know that He has been faithful but still, we doubt.
We doubt His ability to fulfill what He has promised He would do. Many times, it’s not that we don’t believe what God says, but that we doubt His willingness to keep His promises to us. We doubt His ability to make and execute a plan for us. Is that you, sweet friend?
The next time you find yourself doubting God’s ability to carry out the plans He has for your life, I encourage you to meditate on these things.
1. Remember Creation - he creation of the world perfectly demonstrates God’s ability to plan. Everything was created in order with each item building on the last. God did not create the plants until He had ensured that there was light and water in abundance because He knew living things would need sustenance to survive.
Let’s put it another way. He’s God. He could have created the things in any order He wanted to and supernaturally sustained them until such time as the systems were in place, but He didn’t. The God who spent so much energy and effort on creation spent the same amount of time and effort on you.
2. He calls Himself “Father”. - One of the images God uses to express His connection to humanity is that of a loving parent. Repeatedly through Scriptures, God reminds us of His heart for us. God Has A Plan.
3. God has invested in your future - No other person has invested as much in your future as God has. He created you, sustains you, guides, directs, and loves you. He and His Son made the greatest sacrifice anyone could make on your behalf.
When you start to doubt that He has your best interest in mind, remember that He already gave up everything for you and is still pursuing you.
Why do I know this, lets look at Romans 5:8 - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Folks as I struggled to understand this and the pain my wife was enduring, it was hard for me to say to my self ok God you have a plan. Then I started telling myself ok God has a plan in all of this.
It was not until I gotten to a place where I was able to look back at the struggles she and I faced in our walk with the Lord, that I could see the plan God had been working to fulfill all along.
That plan was to trust in him no matter what and rest in him knowing his plan is the best for us, his plan was the best for me, his plan was to help us see who he really is, and he is God and the best thing in all of this was, that God remains present throughout.
Friends, God has a plan for our lives and the circumstances we find ourselves in can’t derail them and one thing we all need to learn in all of this, that God has a plan though it may not look the way we expect it to, all we can do is trust in his plan for us, and take comfort he is with us and not against us.
It is well because my eyes are on you God. Your plan is good because YOU are the plan. Keep your eyes on Him.
Amen
