Finding God’s Purpose

You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.

Proverbs 19:21

It is comforting to know that God doesn’t expect us to accomplish his will on our own. Yes, he gives us brains with which to plan and tools, pro-and-con lists, and organizational systems. We humans brainstorm the best options and try to plan so that our lives will turn out well—how to be successful and make a living, how to have a great marriage or relationships. But we don’t have the whole blueprint of the purpose for our lives on earth and how to “get there.”

However, as we give ourselves to God with abandon, discover how he has gifted us, what we’re passionate about and called to, he leads us one step at a time. So how do we find those things?

Just as a miner’s hat in a dark cave casts a beam six feet ahead to give enough light to illuminate the miner’s next steps, the Lord will show us the steps we need to take. He promises that his written Word, the Bible, will light our paths. Yet until we walk those steps, or “six feet,” we won’t be able to see more of the paths. Taking those steps often involves faith, risk, and launching out into unfamiliar territory. Things may seem to fall apart even when we have good intentions and good plans. A situation or person may derail us temporarily. We may get off the right paths and think that all is lost.

But today’s verse assures us of a wonderful and freeing truth: the Lord’s purpose will prevail. His plans for us will stand against our failures and limitations, against the curveballs life throws at us, even in the midst of the broken, fallen world we live in. Nothing will thwart the Lord’s plans!

I praise you, God, that you have a plan even when I don’t know what it is. Thank you that your plan will prevail! May I rest in your eternal, sovereign purpose and walk in obedience to you, step by step.

In spite of all appearances to the contrary, God has a plan for this bankrupt world. He still has something in store for it. This dark, satanic earth, drowned in blood and tears, this earth of ours he still wants as a theatre for his grace and glorious direction.

Helmut Thielicke(1908–1963), German theologian