His Plan Is Better
Thinking back over my life, I wonder how many times I have blamed God for the collapse of a dream, but when the dream was dusted for fingerprints, mine were all over it. Henry Blackaby said, “If you start something and it does not seem to go well, consider carefully that God, on purpose, may not be authenticating what you told the people because it did not come from Him, but from your own head. You may have wanted to do something outstanding for God and forgot that God does not want that. He wants you to be available to him and, more important, to be obedient to him.”
I remember one time when I spent months producing a major strategic planning initiative for my life and ministry. I presented the vision to others, and they unanimously liked “my plan.” To be honest, the plan I put together was so well done that even I was impressed. I am convinced, however, that the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) took a questioning look at “Michael’s plan.” The old saying is that when we make our plans God laughs. I imagine the Father might have said to the Son, “Jesus, have you seen Michael’s plan?” I think they started laughing, and the Son said to the Holy Spirit, “Michael thinks he’s going to accomplish something through HIS plan!” Then they all broke out in belly laughs. I envision the Holy Spirit saying to the Father, “I think we can do better. In fact, I think Michael can do better... if he is willing to go along with our plans, something bigger and longer lasting will take place.”
It is not wrong to plan but wrong to plan without God. God blew away “my plan” and provided a better plan. His plan accomplished what my plan could never accomplish. The truth is His plans are always better than our plans, even when they are hard. G.K. Chesterton said it this way: “How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos.”
The Bible is packed with stories of situations beyond someone’s ability to manage, situations in which people were forced to embrace or abandon God’s plan. A.W. Tozer wrote, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” Deep stuff, but true. Dr. Alan Redpath said, “When God wants to do an impossible task, He takes an impossible individual and crushes him.” God will root out escapism, sarcasm, arrogance, turf protection, or self-pity. To accomplish it, He strikes fatal blows to the heart of “me.” On a daily basis He makes a clarion call to funerals. Paul said, “I die daily,” with the result being the matchless adventure of life in Jesus. God is simply not in the business of calling perfect, self-actualized, got-it-all-together people.
God works best when you are not wholly abandoned to impacting your world, but wholly abandoned to God. Jesus said, “If you save your life, you’ll lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake and the gospel, you’ll find it.”
