When God’s Plan and Mine Don’t Match

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is

the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

Proverbs 19:21 (NIV)

My afternoon was perfectly planned. My list was written down and as each errand was completed, I scratched it off with a flourish. Nothing could stop me as I raced through what I needed to get done in order for the day – and my list – to be completed. 

One more stop and then I could hurry home, to make more lists and repeat the same routine the next day. Oh, but God had a different plan.

I grabbed my one item at the grocery store – my last stop – and impatiently looked over the check out lines until I saw the shortest one and made my way toward Lane 2 as quickly as I could. That’s when I saw him.

He was a former student of mine who was always respectful and polite but also one that I knew struggled on the edge between good and not-so-good choices. He had been on my mind several times but I had not seen him for months. The Lord quietly nudged me.

Suddenly my plan to finish my list and rush to get home ceased to matter. I gave him a hug when he looked my way and asked how he was doing. He muttered a noncommittal answer but waited until I got checked out to walk outside with me.

As we walked, he told me the latest in his life. My heart wanted to cry as he shared the trouble he had gotten into and what he was doing now. After a few minutes we said our goodbyes but not before I told him that I loved him and was praying for him. He shrugged at the prayer comment but smiled and said “Love you, too.”

How wise are the words in Proverbs 19:21. We plan every single minute of our lives, from the second we get up until we go to bed and even then we lay there, planning our list for the next day.  It’s as if we are afraid to stop, take a deep breath, and simply allow the Lord to direct our tomorrow.

I could have waved, said “hi” and hurried on so my plan would not have been altered. But I believe that God is sovereign over our lives and that His plan that day was designed to include a meeting with my student on Lane 2.

My heart cries when I think of all the opportunities the Lord has placed in my path and my “not your plan but mine” attitude that has kept me from simply encouraging one of His children. 

May we never get so busy being busy with our plans that we ignore God’s plan for us to show His love to those who are hurting and searching. Even in a grocery store. 

Father, may your plan be my plan every day. I do not want to miss your direction and will for my life. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . . 

Reflect

• Have you seen someone and felt that you needed to talk to them but didn’t take the time to do that?

• If you didn’t talk with them, why not? Did you have a plan of your own that you needed to complete?

Apply

• Make a list of everything that you feel you need to accomplish for one day.

• Beside each of those items, write down the worst thing that can happen if you choose to share Jesus instead of complete those things on your list.

Power

• Proverbs 19:21 (NIV) “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

• I Timothy 2:1 (NIV) “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone . . .”

• Proverbs 16:33 (NIV) “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

Praying for Twenty Years

“Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they

should always pray and not give up.”

Luke 18:1 (NIV)

     “Twenty years. He prayed for me for twenty years,” the man told me as he spoke of an older gentleman that he knew. I could only shake my head as he continued. “When he met me, he knew that I needed Jesus. So he wrote my name in the margin of his Bible, along with three other names. And he prayed. For twenty years.”

     He told me that he was doing some work for this man at the time and added “I didn’t know Jesus and I didn’t care. But I couldn’t help but watch him because he was different.” I had to ask. “How was he different?” “He prayed over mashed potatoes. He would take off his hat and thank the Lord for his lunch of cold mashed potatoes. Things like that. Being thankful for what he had.”

He then told me that when he finally gave his life to the Lord, he visited the older gentleman to let him know. “And do you know what he did? He got out his Bible and showed me where he had written my name, twenty years earlier. But then he did something else: he wrote SAVED beside my name.” He slowly shook his head.
 
“Two weeks ago he became very sick and was in the hospital so I went to see him. He gave me a card. On it he had written the names of the other people he had been praying for and asked me to continue to pray for those men just as he had been doing all these years. And I will. As long as it takes. Even twenty more years.”

     That gentleman surely had memorized Luke 18:1. He never gave up and was always in prayer for those on his list. Sometimes I grow impatient when I have been praying for someone for a few days or weeks and my prayer isn’t answered. But twenty years?! Can you imagine his joy at being able to write SAVED beside one of the names on his list after all that time?

I cannot begin to tell you how much this man’s testimony has encouraged me to keep praying for those I love who do not have a relationship with Jesus. What about you? Do you have someone that you have lifted up to the Lord for years and have yet to see a change? I urge you to never give up and never quit praying. Because, when you think about it, what is twenty years compared to eternity?


     Father, your word says that I should always pray and not give up. Please help me to be faithful in praying for the lost, no matter how long it takes. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

R.A.P. it up . . . 

Reflect
• What is the longest time that you have prayed for the salvation of someone you know?

• How does that compare with today’s prayer time of twenty years? Longer or shorter?

Apply
• Journal the names of people you know who are without Jesus and the date that you began praying for them.

• Write today’s Scripture beside each one to remind you to always be in prayer for that person, no matter how long it takes. Write SAVED when your prayer is answered.

Power 
• Luke 18:1 (NIV) “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”

• Romans 12:12 (NIV) “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

• I Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV) “. . . pray continually . . .”

The Eyes Have It

“I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands . . . Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”

Psalm 119:10, 18 (NIV)

I made a decision to have Lasik surgery on my eyes. For years I had had a love/hate relationship with glasses and eventually contacts. They worked great during the day. That wasn’t the problem. It was at night that I struggled. I would wake up and look at the clock but couldn’t see a thing without grabbing my glasses. That action woke me up even more and I found myself wishing that I could actually see the numbers and then go right back to sleep.

After my husband passed away, I was determined to have the eye surgery done. I was not used to being alone and had more than one night of being afraid of unidentified sounds and not being able to see anything.

My rational for the surgery went something like this: if someone broke in to my home and tried to attack me, I would have to say “Excuse me, but could you stand there for just a minute so I can put on my glasses in order to see you clearly to hit you with my bat?” Instead, with the eye surgery, I could just grab the bat and whack the intruder in the head before he knew what happened!

The last straw came when I was showering and could not read the words on the bottle on the shower shelf. Did it say body wash or body scrub or was it a shampoo? With my glasses on, I realized that I was trying to read French on the bottle! Problem solved but who wears glasses in the shower?

May I just say that having the eye surgery was fantastic. I loved being able to see my clock at night without glasses or contacts. I felt more confident that I could quickly see what was causing noises in my home and I didn’t make the mistake again of trying to read what I thought was English on a bottle in the shower.

But as great as it is, Lasik is not perfect. I bought an umbrella with “gold” stamped on the package because it coordinated with my brown jacket and realized when I got home that it actually said “golf.”

David was referring to his spiritual – not physical - eyes as he asked God to reveal the wonderful truth in His instruction in Psalms. Notice he did not pray “God, make your word easy and simple to understand.” Or “Give me something that I can read in 60 seconds so I can get on with my day.”

He knew that there was so much more that he needed to learn. And he also knew that he could not keep God’s commands if he did not know what they were. David was constantly learning about a Father who loved him so deeply and he longed to know Him even more.

What about you? Do you long to know more about the inheritance waiting for you? Do you have questions about death or life or health or money or a million other things? It’s all there, in God’s Word. Ask the Lord to open your spiritual eyes, just as He did with David, so you can experience all the wonderful things He has in store for you.

Father, too many times I do not ask you to reveal your word to me so that I can see with my heart what you want me to learn. Help me to experience you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

• Have you ever felt like the Bible was just too hard to understand and you felt like giving up on it?

• Did you ask the Lord to open your spiritual eyes so you could understand the message in His Word to you?

Apply

• As you read Scripture, write down verses that you do not understand.

• Ask the Lord to reveal to you what He is saying to your heart. Share with a prayer warrior and discuss the verses together, using a Bible concordance.

Power

• Psalm 119:10, 18 (NIV) “I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands . . . Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”

• Ephesians 1:18-19 (NIV) “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength…”

• Psalm 19:8 (NIV) “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”

I’m Puzzled

“. . . He has also set eternity in the hearts of men . . .”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

 “What’s da matter with dis ting?” I heard the frustrated little voice ask. I turned around to see what “dis ting” was and bent down, face to face, with one of the 4 year old boys in my Sunday school class.

He could not get a piece of his puzzle to fit where he thought it should go. He had repeatedly twisted the piece at every angle but while it was similar in shape, it was not the right one. He finally took his fist and began pounding on the puzzle piece, as if he could somehow beat it into the hole. And yet, it still did not match up.

I knelt down beside him and quietly shared “The reason that puzzle piece won’t fit in that space is because it isn’t the same shape. We need to look around and find one that is the very same and see if it will fit.” But he shook his head. “Nope. I think I just need to keep hittin’ it with my fist ‘til it goes in,” he responded.

I looked through the remaining pieces on the table and found the correct one. “Only one puzzle piece is exactly like that space. Why don’t we try this one and see if it will work?” I asked him. Grudgingly he took it from me but instantly smiled as it fit perfectly in the puzzle. “Thanks,” he told me, “but that other one would have fitted if I hit it a few more times with my fist.”

Sound familiar? That’s us alright when it comes to life. There is an empty space inside all of us and nothing will fill it except Jesus.

Oh, we can try to fill it with other things – and we do. We try money or a career or relationships. We may even try to put family in that spot and push and shove to make it fit.

That might result with the appearance of “fitting” and result in temporary happiness but it will never be the exact fit that brings us joy and peace for eternity.

Solomon, the writer of today’s Scripture, understood. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God “has also set eternity in the hearts of men.”

Solomon had it all: wisdom beyond compare, wealth with no equal, every pleasure that money could buy. And yet he knew that his heart was not complete – that the pieces of his life did not fit together – without God.

God has placed an empty spot for a puzzle piece in our hearts. What puzzle piece will you choose to fit in that space? I choose Jesus.

Father, thank you for giving me Jesus to fill the longing in my heart for a place in eternity with you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

R.A.P. it up . . .

Reflect

• Have you ever felt a longing in your heart for more than just what the world offers?

• What worldly solutions have you tried to satisfy that longing? Did anything work?

Apply

• Journal those things in your life that are puzzle pieces you have used to try to fill the empty places in your heart.

• Read today’s Scripture aloud, replacing the word “eternity.” with each of those things. Compare them with the gift of eternal life with Jesus.

Power

• Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV) “. . . He has also set eternity in the hearts of men . . .”

·         Psalm 63:1 (NIV) “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

• Psalm 42:1 (NIV) “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”