God's Plans Are Better Than Our Plans

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

 

Jeremiah 29:11

 

 

 

Plans, we all have plans for our lives, but are they really the plans that God has for us. We read here in Jeremiah that God DECLARES the plans for our lives, but so many times we declare our own plans for our lives and ignore what plans He has predetermined for us.

 

When we seek to establish our own plans apart from God and what the indwelling Holy Spirit is leading us in, we will always have a sense of uncertainty and not be fully content where we are in life. Solomon is a prime example of this; he had nothing withheld from his appetite and seemed to always be moving forward in a plan of some manner. He was a great builder, a great businessman, and a great lover of women—every imaginable pleasure was his.

 

Nevertheless, he was to discover that these things alone could not satisfy the human soul. As we make plans for our lives ultimately we are looking to satisfy some need or longing that we FEEL needs met in our time and in our way, unless we are fully surrendered to God and are walking by the leading of the Holy Spirit on our lives. As we walk according to what the Holy Spirit is leading us in, then and only then, will our plans be plans that are what God has for us—plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

  

As we keep our focus on God and allow Him to continue to fashion us into Christ-likeness we will begin to understand the plans He has for us and we will find that His plans are the BEST nothing more and nothing less. We deceive ourselves if we believe that our plans are by far better than God's plans and are walking according to the flesh instead of the Spirit. We see that Paul always sought God in his plans and lived by the Spirits leading, knowing that this is the only way in which we can fully see God's plans transpire: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).

It may mean for some of us that we have to deny the flesh of its needs and wants, in order to give way to the Spirit and fulfill the plans that God has for us. And it may be hard to let go of our plans, but it does not even compare to the plans that God has for us.