DITW – The Plan versus the Prayer – July 16, 2018
Many of my thoughts as an adult are guided towards what plans I have made and what plans I need to make. As silly as it sounds, I have become the product of time rather than time being determined by me. I look at all the theoretical roads that lie before me and try my best to determine which direction is best. Sometimes, I have made the decision to travel the wrong way and other times I have traveled a way that seemed wrong but ultimately was right. It’s easy to see how we are driving to make plans based off what we think is important or priority but my reading today reminds me that our plans are only guideposts for what God plans to do and he’ll do as he sees fit “We make our own plans but the Lord gives the right answer” (Proverbs 16:1, NLT). As a follower of Christ, I have tried my best to figure out exactly what God wants but I often realize that I will never make the right choices if God is not in those choices, the letter to Ephesus guides us as such: “Don’t act thoughtlessly but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” (Ephesians 5:17, NLT). God does not always want me to have an answer and will often find ways to remind me that he is God and I am a child who constantly strives to follow his example. Sometimes, the best way to find out what God wants is the way that I often use incorrectly – prayer. I pray about things all the time, some of them are deep and important and some are honestly quite small and not too important in the grand scheme of things, luckily God does not judge us for our small prayers any more than our big ones. David often found this was his only refuge but he had great faith in it: “I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray.” (Psalm 17:6). To be a better praying person, I also need to go to a simple method from Psalm 16: “Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. ” (Psalm 16:5, NLT). The less I let the plans I have made direct my path, the more I find the great wonder of God’s direction. The reverse, unfortunately, is also true – I worry so much about my plans succeeding that I forget that even if my plans fail, God’s will still succeed.