Plan change. again.

One word to describe me: planner. Maybe some of you would say the same, but maybe some of you say you could care less about making a plan. Hmmm... even those who say they aren't a planner have plans. Plans to get married one day, to have a nice job, to live in a certain place, or maybe you are making plans for what you want to do this summer or just what to eat tonight! We have to plan. It's in our nature to plan. Some of us plan more than others.

Even God gave plans to those in the Bible. He even had the greatest plan ever that would solve the biggest problem known to mankind! You know, when we screwed up, our ancestors Adam and Eve wayyyyy back in the Garden of Eden. They sinned, ate the fruit that God told them not to eat. Sin means disobeying God. But God, because of his deep, unending love for them, and everyone else who came after them, including you and me, made a plan.

His plan was the greatest of plans. He planned to send his son Jesus, who is fully God, to live on this earth and receive every temptation and hardship that we also experience here. But he didn't sin. He never messed up because He was perfect. This was crucial because his purpose of coming was to die on the cross IN OUR PLACE to receive all the wrath that God had for us because of our mess ups and sins. His purpose for this plan is so that all of us, no matter who you are or what you have done, have a chance to receive eternal life and restore our broken relationship with a perfect God. This means that if you accept Jesus because of what He did for you on the cross, believing that you're so broken and need a Savior, then He will adopt you into his family, call you His child, and give you an eternal home with Him when your time on earth is over. And while you're on earth, He will be with you every step of the way. He is the only thing on earth that can satisfy you and make you whole. Because sin invaded this earth, our lives are broken and hard, but living with Jesus makes it so much easier to get through the hard times.

Our plans will fail. We aren't God, so we aren't all-powerful and all-knowing. We will never know the perfect plan for our lives. We will never understand why things happen the way they do. One day, our lives could seem to be going perfectly then all of a sudden, the unthinkable, unplanned event happens and we're back to our broken and sad lives that don't make sense to us.

But this is one reason why God's plan is so amazing. When our plans fail, we know that if we belong to Christ and accept Him to be the Lord of our lives, then He has the perfect plan for us. Romans 8:28 says that all things work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose. This includes the bad, unplanned events that occur in our lives. Proverbs 16:9 says that the heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. 

I am working through an unplanned event in my life right now. I feel like God has just taken me back a few steps in my life. But even though it hurts, I can already see how God is using my unplanned event to remind me that I am so broken and STILL in desperate need of Him even though I accepted him as Lord when I was so little. He's reminding me that even when I think I'm awesome and have it all together, I actually can't make any good plan on my own. He is the one who gives the best and perfect plan for my life. He is the one who already gave me the best plan that has ever happened in all eternity. And I am so thankful that He did plan to die for me and that I now live with Him. I can trust that when my plans fail, his plans never will. And I know He only has good things to come for me.

Get at me if you want to know more about what this means for your own life!
Love,
A