Making Plans
Are you a “New Year’s Resolution” person? Do you love making lists and crossing things off as they are completed? Maybe you even add things to your list at the end of the day—things you have already accomplished—just so you can mark them off. January is a natural time for making lists, plans, and goals. It’s also a great time to remember this truth: “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Prov. 19:21, NIV).
In the book of Revelation, chapter five describes a scene in heaven when it was time for God’s plan to be put into motion. The elders and members of the heavenly council were present, along with the angels and spiritual beings, and Almighty God was seated on the throne. John the Revelator watched the scene unfold and wept as the scroll appeared, and he realized that “no one in heaven or earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it … no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside” (Rev. 5:3-4, NIV).
The plan was ready and waiting. It was established from the beginning, and Scripture tells us that God’s plans stand firm forever (Psalms 33:11). The problem was that no one was worthy to open the plan and set it in motion. John was weeping over the hopeless situation, but everything changed in a moment.
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders … He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb … And they sang a new song, saying, ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals … Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand … In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
Rev. 5:6-12, NIV
I know I cannot fully appreciate the worthiness of God, nor the fact that He has plans that cannot even begin until He ordains that they be opened by His son Jesus. Because I seem to forget this quite frequently, I am often tempted to step forward and get plans going myself. When waiting stretches on, when training seasons feel long, or when delays don’t make sense to me, I am tempted to step forward and take matters into my own hands. I kind of look around the room and think, “I’ll give it a go!” However, we can easily learn from King Saul’s impetuous decision to offer the sacrifice to God in the place of Samuel, God’s appointed prophet and priest (1 Sam. 13). Saul’s foolishness and disobedience disqualified him as king of Israel, and God anointed David in Saul’s place.
God is the originator of good—really good—plans. And although we think our plans are born from our own hearts and minds, it is God’s purpose and plan that will prevail. The plans are His: the beginning, middle, and end are all His. Even the unrolling of the blueprint is not ours to do.
So before our lists get too long and our plans too lofty, let’s pause to humble ourselves. Let’s submit to God’s Lordship and Sovereignty, and rejoice that He has a plan. He is qualified and able to begin it, and He is powerful, mighty, and faithful to complete it!
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil. 1:6, NIV