Today, I was planning on writing another post on the next in the series of Christian lies.
That was the plan. But you know how the saying goes…
If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans!
Now, this isn’t some horrible thing that happened to me. But it seems there was a technical snafu that’s going to keep me from doing that today.
At this moment, when things go wrong, you have two basic choices:
- Grumble that things went wrong, didn’t go “according to plan” and choose to suffer…
- Accept that something happened. It didn’t go according to YOUR plan… but… it must be according to God’s plan and “go with the flow” so to speak.
You see, God has a plan for everything. And no matter how much we think “things are screwed up” or “I screwed something up”… it is all working out exactly as God has planned…
This is a truth you can rest in. The Bible reminds us of this fact in Proverbs 16:9:
“In his heart a man plans his course,
but the LORD determines his steps.”
Which is kind of hard to understand, but you can rest in it.
Even harder to understand is that no matter what evil a human may come up with, independent of God, that is that person’s “planning his course” and God can take that tragedy or evil and create something beautiful out of it by “determining the steps” of that persons (and all the people affected by that person’s evil’s) life.
Another way to say this is to say…
God knows the “End Game” and we don’t
So maybe you think your life is screwed up right now… maybe you think you screwed up in the past… maybe you think something is going “according to plan” in your life, in the present moment. All I can say (and my life experiences have backed this up MANY times) is God is in control… He is directing your steps… and He is working it ALL together for Good, His glory and according to His perfect will.
The HARD part is trusting.
Trusting when it makes no sense to trust. And don’t worry–you WILL forget to trust, or lose site of the fact that God is in control. It’s ok. We all do. Simply:
- Recognize you lost site of God, lost faith in Him…
- Readjust, “renew” your mind to focus again on Him in faith and trust Him…
You may have to do this 100 times per day. Especially if this concept is foreign to you. But after a short while it will only be 90 times a day… then 50… then 30… then you realize one day you’re pretty much trusting Him during each step and “walking by faith”.
Then you’ll probably forget again 
But it’s ok, we’re all human and God knows this (He created us!) Just see it for what it is, recognize the situation (no faith) and reset your mind on God by faith. It’s really the ONLY thing you can do to live a great Christian life.
With Love
Caleb
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Karen Simon 06.12.09 at 4:21 pm
Thanks for your online ministry. I was feeling that God had gone silent on me for this past few weeks, I searched scripture but didn’t get anything out of it as I normally would have. I felt like I had disappointed God recently when I made a decision that went against what seemed like a wonderful opportunity.
I’m just so glad I found your website and was able to get some answers that put me back on track with God’s unconditional love.
Thanks again
calebo 09.08.09 at 3:30 pm
@ Karen: You’re very welcome
Love,
Caleb