3. “Share your plans with the Lord,
and you will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3.
Danny L. Deaube said, “God’s will is like a jigsaw puzzle, you won’t be able to see the whole picture until all the pieces are together.” CEV.
A smart and wise counsel is this- Include God in all your plans. I mean talk to him and share all your plans with Him. Not just a few here and there. All your plans. This means you have ongoing communication with the Lord God all through the day. Excellent! You are on the way to success beyond your expectations. Out insight today promises this to you.
You may ask why should I do it. My counter-question is – why shouldn’t you do it?
In Jeremiah 29:11, God says He has plans for you. Not only He has plans for your personal life, but he also says He knows well the plans He has for you. The verse continues to say how good his plans are. The Lord God Himself declares His “plans are for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (TLB).
Are you a school/college student? Are you wondering about your future? Are you looking for a job and do not know what to do? Are you middle-aged? Or are you a retiree? God says He has plans for your life.
Bible also says in Proverbs 19:21, people may have a lot of plans. But only the purpose of the Lord will prevail. Great news, right? Like it or not, only His plan going to prevail in the end. If he has a good plan that avoids evil, includes a good future and hope, and again if only His plan is going to prevail in the end, it is only a prudent practice to share with God all your plans and allow him to direct and straighten your ways and paths. He uses His plan and your plan and then makes it all good in the end. Discuss with Him.
Lesson 101. God is God. We are not.
God is omniscient. That means all knowledgeable. He knows the past, present, and future. He knows the end from the very beginning. Therefore He can take into consideration all the possible consequences/outcomes and give you the best plan. Our knowledge is very limited. We do not know the future. Yet, he sees all your future today.
God is omnipotent. This means He is all-powerful. If he is all-powerful, he is able and powerful to make things happen to you so easily.
He is omnipresent. This means God is present everywhere at the same time. This means when you travel in your car, airplane, ship, or walk on the road, workplace, in classrooms, facing issues, he is present with you. He can protect you from all harm and dangers and guide you to succeed.
Beloved, don’t you know you have to depend on others in your everyday life? You must depend on your car to take you to work. Then you need to depend on your boss for his approval or disapproval of your requests. If you think about it all, we have to depend on others anyway in our everyday life.
The better and the wisest route is this –More than you depend on others, why don’t you fully depend on an all-powerful, all-knowledgable, all-present, loving, merciful, and gracious God who has a perfect plan for you? Because God is sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowledgable, and all-present, He is in total control of all people and events.
Our daily insight says, “Share your plan with the Lord, and you will succeed.” Try it out! Then taste and see the Lord is good. When you share all your plans with the Lord, you will succeed no matter what happens. God is in the driver’s seat and you are in the backseat. When everything is said and done, it won’t be bad in the end. It will come out good and successful. An amazing deal, right?
Bible talks about people who do not include God in his plans in James 4:13-17. They make a plan without sharing God or including him in it. They say today or tomorrow we would go to a certain city, stay there to do business, and make a lot of money. However, they do not know what his life will be like tomorrow. He does not understand he is fully dependent on God even for his next breath. They do not think their life is like a puff of smoke that can disappear at any moment. However, they boast about themselves and proudly make a plan for the future without discussing it with God.
On the contrary, sharing all your plans with God is the safest and smart way to live here on this planet earth that guarantees success. Bible says to submit all your ways to the Lord God. If you do so, He will make your path straight and successful. (Proverbs 3:6).
Beloved, the Bible also says you can’t approach God (1 Timothy 6:16) because He is unapproachable light, and holy and we are not. However, God made a way to come to Him in the person of Jesus. Jesus paid for all of our sins on his divine body, by his blood. Now you can boldly come to God in the name of Jesus Christ. There is power in the name of Jesus Christ. Big and heaven-sized things are in store for you when you share your plans with Him and submit to his sovereignty.
Got a moment for today’s prayer? “Father in heaven, I submit all of my plans to you. I will discuss all my plans with you because I know you can see the future, you are all-powerful and all-present. I know I can come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus died and rose again for all of my sins. Please save me today and lead me into your good and perfect plans. In the name of Christ, I pray. Amen.”
2. The knowledge of the truth produces well-built convictions.
“For those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.” Hebrews 5:14 (b).
Our nation and the whole world are more divided than ever before in history. In such divided ideologies, how do we get strong convictions? Without convictions, we will be a group of people tossing around different opinions and ideas. Strong convictions are the characteristics of people based on their acquaintance with the truth.
You see, many people believe there is no absolute truth. Because of the absence of awareness of truth, they side with and make decisions with the majority’s opinions or ideas. No wonder there is an absence of convictions these days. The awareness of truth is the source of strong convictions. Truths are not embodied in suggestions or opinions. It displays unshakable convictions. Until we have steady knowledge of the truth, we will not hear or experience convictions.
Those who have strong convictions based on the knowledge of the truth are those who make things happen. They are the ones who change the world for the better. As we discussed, the knowledge of the truth is the basis of strong convictions that lead to the right moral decisions and changes. Such people are the paradigm shifters for good amid bad and evil incidents. In a culture of relativism and political correctness, how do we come across absolute truths? Jesus said, “you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32
For many, the truth has not set them free as of yet. How do I know the truth? How do we distinguish truth from falsehood? Good and evil? How do we know whether what a person speaks is true or not? There are absolute truths. You and I must see the truth to experience true freedom and distinguish good and evil.
You see, truth is not merely heard sayings. Truth is not merely a few ideas handed down to us through generations. We will know the truth only from the creator who created us. There is the only source of truth. God, who created us, gave us the truth of it all in the Bible. The Bible is the owner’s manual that reveals all the truth about life and the future. You see, when we buy a toy for our children, or a table for our office, the owner who created it gives us a manual to read and understand the truth about how to fix it. It also provides troubleshooting methods. Only the creator of that item knows the truth about his creation. By reading the owner’s manual, we get convictions.
The same is with God, who is the creator of all. To distinguish good from evil, to know the truth from falsehood, to know the original from duplicates, we need God’s book that He gave to us for daily life. It is called the Scripture-the Bible. The Bible has this claim- “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16. Jesus said in his intercessory to the Father in heaven, and it is recorded in John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth”. In other words, separate them by knowing the truth. Then He said how we know the truth, “Your Word is truth.” Your (God’s) Word – the scripture (the Bible) is the truth.
As we get to know the Scripture-the Bible, we will have a strong conviction developing from the truth’s affirmation. We will learn how to distinguish between truth and false. We will understand who tells the truth and who says things based on falsehood. God’s eternal principles revealed in the Bible are the body of truth. Without knowledge of those truths, we will never have convictions. We will have opinions. However, such thoughts and ideas are like waves of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. The result would be double-mindedness and instability.
One more point before I close: Apostle John said this about Jesus in John 1:14. He wrote, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. If you and I want to know the truth, in addition, to getting acquainted with the Bible, take a look at Jesus Christ by reading the four Gospels in the New Testament section of the Bible. Jesus was not only full of grace but also full of truth. The more you know Jesus personally, you will see the truth, which would result in unshakable convictions.
Got a moment for today’s prayer? “Father in heaven, fill in me the truth about you, life here on this earth, and the future. I understand Your word – the Bible – is true. Help me to read and train myself in truth. I also know that Jesus is full of grace and truth. I want to know Jesus intimately. I believe Jesus died, buried, and rose again to save me from my sins and wrongdoings. Please forgive my sins and save me now. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.”
“God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. The more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we are comforted, we will certainly comfort you.”
There is a divine purpose for your severe trials and troubles. When you are suffering, remember God’s promise that He comforts you in all your problems, if you give it all to him in prayer. The ultimate purpose of your sufferings is that God expects you to comfort those who face the same type of trials you faced. The reason is this – God comforted and delivered you in all your troubles and you in turn become the channel for others to experience the wonder-working power of God.
Take a moment and recollect the worst experience you had in your life. It is not your power or ability that helps others, but the sharing of your bad experiences and how God comforted and delivered you. Share your lowest points of life with others and let them be comforted in knowing there is a God who specializes in turning weakness into victory.
Your story becomes their story, and they enter into it and experience God’s comforts and deliverances.
Our verse also says the more we suffer, the more comfort God will shower us. The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 4: 17, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” Listen! Our present troubles divinely produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! The beautiful promise of God that you can claim when you are under trials and difficulties.
Even when you think you are weighed down with troubles, God says it is for your comfort and salvation. And the comfort and salvation you received become the pathway for another person in this world who goes through the same type of trial you experienced.
Keep in mind, God wants to use even your seemingly shameful things happened to help others to know God’s comfort and deliverance. Don’t hide it in your private life. May God gets glory out of it, and it produces glory that outweighs and lasts forever.
When you think about it, Jesus’s sufferings produced the greatest glory that outweighs all. By the voluntary death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for all of your sins, God comforts and forgives you the moment you come and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. There begins the ministry of comfort for you and to others through you.
God loves you and wants to make you His child, not by your meritorious works or deeds, but by the merit of what Jesus did for you on the cross by dying in your place to pay for your sins and resultant judgments. God comforts and delivers you through the sufferings of Jesus. God has the purpose to comfort and deliver others through your painful experiences as well.