Our Plans, God’s Plan

We can make our plans,

but the LORD determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9

WE MAKE PLANS FOR OUR KIDS —even if we aren’t conscious of them or have never stated them aloud. We have plans for their education and where that will take them vocationally. We have plans for their spiritual development and how that will shape what is important to them. We have plans for their physical development that include the sports we hope they’ll play and the bad habits we hope they’ll avoid.

Our plans for our kids may be godly, but that doesn’t mean our plans are God’s plans. And while there’s nothing wrong with making plans, God’s plans often don’t line up with ours. Scripture is full of examples.

Jesus told Peter that his life would not end as he planned: “I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go” (John 21:18).

Paul had plans to carry the gospel to Asia. But those plans didn’t go as he intended. “Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas” (Acts 16:6-8).

The apostle James warns us about loving our plans too much. “Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog —it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil” (James 4:13-16).

Lord, help me to hold on to my plans for ________ loosely. Increase my confidence that your plans for ________ are good even when they don’t seem that way to me. Give me the faith I need to trust that as you determine ________’s steps, every step will take ________ closer to you.