Plans

Planning is a part of human nature.  Much of this tendency comes from God.  He created us in His image, and gave the first two people a hopeful plan for accomplishing much with their lives.  Many of our plans involve creative and exciting ways to carry out His mandate.

But there is a darker side of our tendency to plan.  Because of the fall, human planning cannot be perfect.  In fact, it is profoundly imperfect--as far from perfect as the post-sin earth is.  For one thing, now that sin is our nature, sin is in our plans.  We contrive darkly creative schemes to carry out our wrong desires.  But even if our plans themselves are not sinful, living in an imperfect world means we are sure to be disappointed.  This is something that we can count on every day.  You won't get everything that you want.  No matter how much time, energy, and hope we invest in these plans, our future is ultimately not in our hands.

The penniless and the powerful have this in common:

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 

This is the truth, no matter how much we curse the fall and rage against it.  Many of our plans will come to nothing.  How sad.

But there is good news.  For while all our greatest desires have been affected by the fall, there is One who remained unchanged.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, 

the plans of His heart to all generations.

And this is emphatically good news for a frustrated, disappointed people.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, 

the people whom He has chosen as His heritage.

God has chosen us as His heritage.  And I'll tell you one reason He didn't.  God didn't look at me or anyone else and think, "Wow, I could really use someone with that kind of vision.  Carly's ability to think ahead will really be an asset in my continued world-leadership."  What a joke would that be!  When God chose me to be His heritage, you want to know what I had to offer Him?  A heart in love with sin.  Plans to sin more.  Plans to try and sin without being caught by people, with no thought to the God who would see it all.  Plans to promote myself at any cost.  Plans to indulge in every pleasure possible.

And God saved me, and gave me the awesome hope that I am His heritage, His child, forever.  And He gave me a new set of plans--to honor Him.  To bring Him glory by any means.  He gave me creative plans to spend my life on Him in a thousand little ways.  And I've never, from the beginning, carried out a single one of those plans perfectly.  But His choosing of me never depended on that anyways.  It was His plan all along, quite independent of mine.

And what about those other plans and desires (unsinful) that I want, and don't get?  There is no easy way to convince someone (yourself included) that not getting what you want is a good thing.  Yet there is some comfort to be found in this:

The Lord looks down from heaven;

He sees all the children of man;

from where He sits enthroned He looks out

on all the inhabitants of the earth,

He who fashions the heart of them all

and observes all their deeds.

God sees.  God knows.  He knows when our hearts are broken.  He knows when our plans come to nothing and we get so disappointed we can hardly speak.  And He intimately knows exactly what it is that we desire--because He fashioned our hearts.  It feels good when you have pain just to remember that God knows.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him

on those who hope in His steadfast love.

When your plans come to nothing, you can count on this:  God's eye is on those who fear Him, and those who hope in His love.  So let your new plans revolve around that love.  The one constant in an unpredictable world is God's character.  And His love is steadfast.  So whatever your plans are today, just remember--they can fall apart, but God's love will always hold you together.

Psalm 33:10-15, 18