God’s Plans Versus Our Plans
Memory verse: Some trust in chariots and some in horses. But we trust in the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:7)
When God delivered the children of Israel, how many lives were lost? None. In the process, God even led the Egyptians to give the Israelites their gold, silver, and clothes. Egypt was plundered, the Egyptian army was destroyed, and the Israelites did not lose a single person.
Why do we not realize that it is always best to do things God’s way? We cause some of the wreck and ruin in our churches because we have a plan. We implement the plan and accomplish only what we can do. We ask God to bless our plans, and then we promise to give Him the glory when He does. Yet, God is not glorified by making our plans succeed. He receives glory when His will is done in His way. Christ is the Head of the body: the church. What a difference it would make if we obeyed Christ as the Head of the body! He could accomplish more in six months through a people yielded to Him than we could do in 60 years without Him.
Read the Scripture and answer the following questions:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So, I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices” (Ps. 81:10-12)
What had God already done for Israel?
What did God promise His people?
How did the people respond?
What did God do?
“If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes” (Ps. 81:13-14)
What could have been true if Israel had listened to and followed God?
We adjust our lives to God so He will do through us what He wants to accomplish. God is not our servant to adjust His activity to our plans. We are His servants, and we adjust our lives to what He is about to do. If we do not submit, God will allow us to follow our own devices. In following them, however, we will never experience what God wanted to do on our behalf or through us for others.
God brought Israel out of Egypt with many miraculous signs and wonders. Wouldn’t you think the Hebrews would trust God to do anything after that? When they arrived in the promised land, however, they could not trust Him to deliver it to them. For that reason, they spent the next 40 years wandering around in the wilderness. In Psalm 81, God reminded Israel that He would have conquered their enemies quickly if they had only followed His plans rather than trusting in their own devices and wisdom.
Final Thought:
Why are we ever satisfied to pursue our plans, when God has so much more for us to experience?