We Cannot Thwart God’s Plan

“We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.” (Psalm 44:1-3)

It matters not if we act to serve God or act to work against God, if we believe in God or do not believe in God, if we believe in God and transgress or if we believe in God and do not transgress. Create any scenario you like, at the end of the day, or more precisely, in God’s perfect timing, HIS WILL, will be done! God has a plan and He is going to stick to it, regardless if it’s for the short term or the ‘big’ picture prophetically – God’s orchestrating the entire thing and He always has been.

Consider the ‘blessing debacle’ with Isaac, Jacob, and Rebekah. All three, despite being Godly folks, were operating sinfully, while not realizing that God’s plan (for Jacob in the short term and for mankind in the long term), was going to happen regardless if this trio worked with God righteously or against Him sinfully – the result was always going to be the same. The fact that God allowed the event to occur as it did and then use it to convey the Divine principle to us now, just demonstrates His sovereignty and the unfathomable intricacy of His plan.

I’m not suggesting that as followers of Jesus Christ we might as well sin. That would be so very foolish (as brother Paul confirms in an epistle), as we always want to be working on the side of righteousness. But aren’t you comforted in knowing that if we sin, or if we make mistakes, or if for a moment or a season we ignore the pleadings of the Holy Spirit, that God’s plan is moving forward anyway?

I don’t know about you, but that gives me much peace.

I believe (at least in part), this is what Jesus was talking about when He said His yoke was EASY and His burden is LIGHT. Consider the ‘burden’ that all Christians are called to share (the Gospel) and how so many of us are weighed down by the thought of doing it, so much so that many don’t.

Why?

Because we’ve made what was supposed to light, heavy.

Remember, God’s plan is going forward regardless of what we do, and He is responsible for drawing believers unto Himself. Our ‘very light’ burden is to just start the conversation, a conversation by the way He will equip us for. The bulk of the burden falls on God, not us. More importantly, if God wants a particular person to hear the Gospel and we fail in our obedience, God will make another way for it to happen, but how very foolish we are if we choose to not participate in God’s plan. Our salvation is not threatened, but know we have forfeited the opportunity to bless and please God, and there will be loss of some sort.



As I write this blog, the nation is suffering greatly from a decimating virus, an unrepairable financial deficit, riots, looting, and destruction. The solution is Jesus, and everything He brings to the table. The world’s solution, such as dismantling our police departments, is insanity, especially in light of the knowledge that God’s plan is going to prevail in the long run.

This is the message the Church needs to be bringing, while simultaneously not being burdened with the notion that we carry the weight of saving America (or the world) on our shoulders. We preach it, we teach it, we share the information, and God will take it from there. For us, we just want to be on the right side of it all.

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Learning to Pray

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” (Romans 8:26)

I remember my first time(s) praying corporately. It was a little unnerving due to a lack of confidence and the awkwardness associated with public speaking. Looking back I see what an amazing and Godly learning experience it was. Not only did I learn how to pray stylistically (by listening to others), but I was simultaneously being taught that my trepidation was steeped in pride and selfishness. Today if somebody says, “Prayer changes the pray-er,” I know where they’re coming from.

Praying privately or corporately is now an easy thing (generally speaking), however that does not mean I fully know how to pray. The Romans 8:26 passage reminds me that learning how to pray, or perhaps more precisely what to pray, is a never-ending process. The key I found is in paying attention to what I prayed for and then how God responded. Did what I specifically pray ‘for or about’ come to fruition, or was there another result?

That’s of course where the Romans verse applies. When I pray amiss, the Holy Spirit steps in and essentially tells God (as I imagine), “Father, this is what Dave meant to say…” and God answers that prayer. It’s still my prayer, but God tweaked it and in so doing made it doable, in that His will and my will were now in harmony, thanks to the Spirit’s interceding. My role as a learner (disciple) is to pay attention to the changes that He made and adjust my future prays accordingly, while submitting myself to Him for the changes in me that need to be made.

“Okay, I prayed for this, but God did this instead. Hmm, what do I need to allow God to change in me so I do not make that same error again? Was my prayer selfish or prideful? Did I not see the bigger picture? What was it?”

God says yes to these prayers.

In fact, God never says no to our prayers when the Holy Spirit prays with us. If we think or believe God has said “No,” it is because we have forgotten, or do not know that the Holy Spirit was interpreting for us, and/or we were not paying attention to what God ultimately did as it relates to our initial prayer. So while it may seem He said no to us, in reality He said yes to the Holy Spirit.

God cannot deny Himself.

And lest we forget, while this is all going on, Jesus is also making speaking on our behalf.

“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34)

It’s a win-win in regard to prayer, as long as we’re paying attention and willing to learn. If God is for us, He is for us.

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Does This Seem Harsh to You?

“Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! Go after them until the last one is destroyed. The Lord is king forever and ever! The godless nations will vanish from the land. Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them.”(Psalm 10:15-18)

This Psalm is King David’s and it is essentially a prayer. Does it seem harsh to you? That’s because it is harsh, so it deserves an explanation.

First, keep in my mind that God has told us that vengeance is His, not ours, but He is not saying we can seek justice through our legal system when we are wronged. The vengeance being spoken of (and implied in David’s Psalm) is as severe as it can get and the type of punishment only God is able to dispense. It is also eternal.

Second, we don’t know who is deserving of this kind of punishment. We think we know, but only God knows. For example, we look at Hitler and think, “Surely he should go to hell,” but the truth be told we ALL should go to hell; Hitler could have ‘sincerely’ repented and came to believe in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, just as we did. Let us not waste our time in pondering that that was highly unlikely. Accept these 2 facts: we do not know and Jesus does know. Consider the Apostle Paul. The guy was a mini-Hitler. Instead of Jews, he exterminated Christians, but yet he saw the light and repented. Aren’t you glad that some vengeance-minded posse didn’t take him out?

I am.

King David’s prayer reflects his understanding of God’s sovereignty in this regard. And since we cannot inflict our own sort of revenge, and since we don’t know who will be damned (by God) and who will not, our call is to love our enemies, that is to say to love them enough to share the Gospel message with them, wearing our faith and ambassadorship on our sleeves. We surely don’t condone evil behavior, but if given the opportunity (by the Holy Spirit, mind you) we attempt to side-step evil to reach the soul of the one doling it out.

In summary:

1) If you’re wronged, try to settle it in a Biblical manner. If you don’t know what that is, ask your pastor or google it.
2) Protect yourself and others as the law permits.
3) Call the police, a lawyer, etc. if necessary.
4) Vengeance is God’s. Don’t go there. Pray has David did.

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