August 15th, 2024
20 Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
It is quite common for us to hear the famous Christian slogan that "God loves us and has a plan for our life". While this may feel exciting and intriguing, we must explain what we mean by this statement. How are we to know exactly what the Lord plans and wills for our life? How do I unlock the mystery that is God's plan for me? Our passage today is helpful to that end.
All too often, believers have warped expectations of what they want to accomplish in this life and even the things they would like to do for the sake of God. Which is why verse 21 of our passage states that, "many are the plan in a person's heart" because it's true. All of us have many dreams, aspirations, goals and ideas we would like to see manifested in our lifetime. However, we are typically holding the wrong perspective as we chase these desires. Our mindset tends to be "I have a plan, and I want God to help me accomplish it". This leads us away from true surrender and submission to the Lordship of Christ and into the sovereignty of our own fleshly desires. We might even think that because our plans are spiritually motivated or connected to helping others, that God must get behind us and support it. This is not always the truth. We may be unwisely taking on something God never asked us to do. King David of the Old Testament desired to build a temple for the Lord and it was God himself who restricted David from such a pursuit. As noble as it was, it was not within the divine plan of God for David to construct the Lord's temple (1 Chronicles 17:4).
We are reminded many times in the Bible that all of our thoughts and all of our desires must be tested against the very will of God. We are not the lords of our own lives and nor can we begin to think we have more freedom than we do. We are to live in unceasing submission to what God wants for us (James 4:7). We cannot be overly trusting and dependent upon our own wisdom and planning. We are to firstly be trusting in the Lord and leaning not on our own understanding. It is within that submission that He will make our paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6). The chief reason why we look to God in all seasons of our life is because we realize His purposes will always prevail over ours. God has a sovereign plan for all of humanity and for each one of us individually. And just as Isaiah writes, His purpose will stand and He will do all that is needed to accomplish it (Isaiah 46:10).
Does this mean we should stop desiring things? Should we stop creating plans and dreaming dreams? This is not the calling of the scripture. Rather, the warning is to never become too presumptuous or overly confident in our own ability to make plans; God has the final say. I believe the Lord even grants to us ways by which we can assess our own plans and make wiser decisions about our life. Verse 20 commands us to listen to the advice of others and receive discipline and correction. Perhaps the Lord has sent various people into your life to be a guiding voice for you. All of us would be a bit wiser if we took more time to listen and be counselled rather than hide away and devise our own plans. We would certainly save ourselves from a number of failures and disappointments when our plans don't work out the way we intended.
The truth is, God is never withholding wisdom from us. In fact, He asks us to pray and seek His face for wisdom always (James 1:5). He has given us the gift of His Holy Word that we might have a lamp for our feet and a light for the unknown path (Psalm 119:105). He has given us the gift of His church that we might be instructed by the counsel of many (Proverbs 15:22). And He has given us the gift of prayer by which the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and helps us walk in the very will of God (John 14:26). With all these things in our heart, we never have to be anxious or worried. Make your plans and make your decisions, but lean ultimately on the final word from the Lord.