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Saturday, Jan 20 - Surrendering Your Plans
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DEVOTIONAL: “SURRENDERING YOUR PLANS”
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My nature is slightly more flexible than planned. This can be an asset when a person needs help (it makes me seem incredibly caring). But it can be frustrating to a wife who is beautifully organized (because it can make me seem a bit uncaring!).
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While a ministry change from young adult pastor to church planting pastor has forced me to be more planned than I used to be able to get away with, I have been discovering I am not (nor ever was) as flexible as I used to think or brag. The most glaring example is the moment I felt God “call” me to church planting.
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I had been in a wonderful spiritual season of surrender and prayer for a couple months when my life-altering moment came. But rather than be flexible and say, “Ok God, where do you want me to plant a church?” I gave a resounding, “No!”
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I liked my life in Cedar Rapids. I loved my church. I loved the church staff with whom I worked. My family was in a great place, with great schools and great friends. I was respected in my job. I didn’t want to make a change to a ministry I didn’t feel suited to do.
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However, over a two-year span, the Holy Spirit continued to work on me, to get me to a place where I fully surrendered my plans and future to Him. Despite claiming to be flexible, my plan was to stay where I was, doing ministry where I was, so I might experience the joy I currently was. But I learned the truth of Proverbs 19:21…
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“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
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I am now grateful God didn’t let “my” plans succeed. Had God given into my plans, I would not know you, my Riverwood family, and not had the joy of seeing Him work in you and through you. I will not lie to you: God’s plans aren’t always the easiest path. Yet it is the right path leading to the best destination.
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What plans have you been making or holding in your heart that God wants you to surrender to Him? To surrender your plans doesn’t necessarily mean they will never come to fruition. But to see your plans succeed greatly (or be eliminated for the better), you need to hand them over to the Sovereign God.
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Oh gracious God, empower me through Your Spirit to relinquish control of my plans. When I do make plans, help me do it with open hands. When You change my plans, help me to agree with joy. And when You erase my plans, help me to trust Your bigger plan, for all the wisdom and glory and strength are yours forever and ever. Amen.
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