I was reminded the other day of some great plan I had for our lives that I thought would bring us happiness. It never happened and would not have brought us the happiness I was looking for. That reminded me of some other ideas that we had unsuccessfully tried; none of which I am glad to say succeeded.
God has great plans for our lives but there are two things they are not. One is a plan that is the same for everyone. We all have the same destination but how we get there has endless variety. Secondly there is not one way that is the ‘right’ one for us and everything else is outside the will of God. The will of God for our lives is not that narrow. The path to salvation is narrow and is only through Jesus Christ. After that the variety of how we walk this earthly path is hugely diverse. If you imagine taking a journey from your home to a destination several hours away, there can be many different routes to take. There is the fast but often uninteresting motorway route. There is a way that takes in some towns and villages which can be beautiful but full of traffic jams or there is the country byways route which meanders through all sorts of beautiful places but takes forever. None of these routes is ‘right’ and the others ‘wrong’. They all have merit and God does not approve one over another. God’s time frame is often very different from ours – fastest is not necessarily the best.
There may be times when God says that one particular way is ‘wrong’ for instance in Acts 16: 6 – 11, Paul and his companions wanted to go into Bithynia but the Holy Spirit blocked them from travelling there because he wanted them to go and help out in Macedonia. The Holy Spirit has several times blocked our plans either because they are not good for us or usually because he has a far better plan.
God’s plans for our lives are good but there may be a variety of ways to achieve this. If we choose one way over another God will bless either and if we trust him he will keep us from things that will do us harm or take us on an unnecessary and undesirable diversions. The only time I have seen people following disastrous plans has been when they have not involved God in their choices or tried to work out God’s plans and purposes for their lives by themselves. God can even rectify these if we humbly come to him for forgiveness. God is building character and fruit into our lives and turning us into the likeness of Jesus. There is an endless variety of ways he does this. We do not have to fear missing out on anything if we trust God and we can trust him that no matter how we achieve them, his plans are the best.
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