Following God's Plan

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How we follow (or try to follow) God's plan in a world that doesn't understand.

Today I'm talking about God's plan. The first thing I should tell you is that while we TRY to follow God's plan as well as we can, we are by no means perfect! We slip up all the time and try to find our way again. We are not perfect at all.

What does it mean to follow God's plan? Obviously there are certain parts to God's plan that are easy to know (by reading the Bible), and certain parts that are not easy to know (through prayer and answers to prayer). Very quickly I want to talk about the "easy" parts, but mostly I want to focus on the not-so-easy parts.

If you spend any time in the Scripture, you know that God commands us to do several things. He commands us to love one another; not to kill; not to sin sexually (we'll discuss that further later); not to lie ("bear false witness"); and to worship Him. That is not a complete list, of course. Our ultimate goal is to love one another and to worship Him with every part of our lives. That means that although we are all sinners, we are to always strive to be closer to Him and to know more about Him. We need to try to do our best to be loving, giving, and as much like Jesus as we can. No one will ever measure up, but we are called to turn away from the world's ways (as "crazy" as some think that is) and towards Jesus's ways. This is not easy, but the Bible gives us guidelines on how to do it. To this end, I would encourage you to spend time in the Word to learn what it means to follow Jesus and as an encouragement to always do better. I, too, really need to spend more time in the Word. It is easy to be led astray by all of the demands of daily life, but God calls us to put Him first, not last.

I'm not saying this because I'm perfect. I often do the same as many others: know that I need to spend more time with God and not do it because I'm working on so many other projects. I do consider God all the time and think about how I can be more purposeful in areas of my life based on what He commands. But by no means do I spend nearly enough time in His Word or with Him in any way. :( That is sad to admit. I am hoping to get myself seriously together soon so that I will do more with it. I may issue a challenge to us all about this! Be prepared for that. :)

If you are spending time in the Word, or spending time praying and considering God's desires for your life, then you know the other side of following God's plan. God has a plan for each of us, and we don't necessarily know what it is. We can try to learn it through prayer and through always listening for God's answers. Sometimes it's very obvious, and other times it's not.

The other week, I desperately wanted to go out with friends. My kids were not feeling well and we'd had a long night and I was feeling frustrated. I knew that going out wasn't a good idea, yet I really, really wanted to do it anyway. So I pushed them to get ready, I did whatever it took. In the back of my head was the thought that maybe God didn't want me to go, because I really needed to put my kids first, not my own frustrations and desires. When everything was ready, I went to get the kids in the car -- and my garage door wouldn't open. I tried EVERYTHING, including unlocking it and opening manually. But no dice. I was forced to stay home. That afternoon, Ben came home and easily opened the garage. It was like God was saying, "If you're not going to do what's right for your kids, I'm going to make you do it." Sometimes it's really that obvious!

And, like that example, sometimes it's not what we want or what's comfortable for us. We may be given a job in another state at a time we don't want to move. We may be prevented from having a child when we desperately want one -- or given one when we're not ready. But all of these things happen because God wants them to.

Treat every event in your life -- good and bad -- as a blessing from God. A lot of times the bad is really a blessing in disguise. Or, sometimes it's an attempt by Satan to make you angry so that you will denounce God instead of praising Him. Continue to praise Him, and continue to pray to him, and try to listen to what He is telling you. He will let you know His plan in parts, and He will lead you in new directions.

Once, when my mother was a little girl, she and her sister wanted to go to a friend's to sleep over. There was no reason why they couldn't, but her mother felt uneasy and told them no. This was God telling her to keep her children with her. That night, there was a fire in her friend's home, and her friend died in that fire. My mother and her sister could easily have died too, had they gone to that sleepover that night.

Another time, a pastor we knew was a teenager and spent time in prayer. He felt God was tugging on him to spend his "extra" money to give to the church, rather than saving for prom like all of his friends. It was hard for him, but he gave his money to the church. On prom day, a close female friend of his called and said, "I just broke up with my boyfriend, and I need you to take me. The tickets are paid for, the tux is rented and it's just your size, dinner is paid for, and we have tickets to an amusement park for after prom. All you have to do is show up." In this case, he was rewarded for following God's plan for him!

God does reward us for following His plan in many amazing ways. He blesses us in ways that make absolutely no sense by the world's standards. And for that reason, I encourage you to always prayerfully consider any decision you make, and to include God in your life all the time. He will guide you if you let Him, and He will bless you if you let Him.

At every time in your life, you will be working on something different. It all depends on what God is calling you to do at that time. God will lay something on your heart that you need to work on. Right now, God is laying it on my heart to work on grace -- understanding it and extending it to others. I don't know where God will take me next. More details about what I'm working on personally will be coming up in future blog posts.

What is God working on in your life? How do you follow His plan?


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