Best Laid Plans

We all make plans, whether they are long-term or short-term. We determine at a fairly young age which school we attend, which classes we will take, and, through all of this, the career we desire. But what if the Lord came to you and wanted to change it all for His purpose? I know many will say that if Jesus wants to change their plan, they would be good with it, but would they really?

The truth is that many of our plans are good, healthy, and even beneficial, so why would the Lord want to change them? This takes us to the book of Acts, chapter 16. In this chapter, we see the evangelist and church planter, Apostle Paul, had a plan for which cities he was to go and preach the gospel to. We see in verse 4 these words, “Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe.” As we read this, we can see that these plans were a good thing; they knew what cities to go to and even what they were to teach. If we were to go further down in this chapter, we would read a peculiar passage in verses 7-8, “and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; 8 and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.” Wait just a minute, they had a plan, and it wasn’t a bad plan, yet the Lord stepped in and said…nah, we’re going to do something different.

I’m sure Paul was scratching his head, trying to figure out why he was not being allowed to go to the cities that were next on his teaching tour. It wasn’t man who was stopping this plan, but we see that it is the Spirit of Jesus. Why would Jesus want to stop Paul from going to these other cities? We see this in v. 9, “A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.” It now becomes very clear. There were people desperate for the help that could only come from the gospel of Jesus. It is a region known as Macedonia, which had many cities, such as Phillipi. There are two things we should glean from these verses. 1) The plan that we devise may be a good plan, but we must always be prepared and understand that Jesus may have a much better plan for our lives and our ministry. 2) Notice also that after understanding that the Lord had a different plan, Paul did not argue, but verse 10 tells us, “Immediately they sought to go into Macedonia.”

Honestly, sometimes when the Lord throws us a curveball, it is not an easy or comfortable redirection that He has planned. But when we understand that it is the Lord who is the One changing our plans, we must immediately be ready to go. So, let us listen and watch to see what the Lord wants from our lives, because He is the One that we serve, and it is His plan that we must choose to follow.