The Best-Laid Plans …

June 5, 2008

By Greg Ebie

Chrysta was invited to be a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding, creating yet another pull on this daddy’s heartstrings to remind me my children are growing up. (How can my daughter have a friend who is getting married?) She went for a weekend with the bride and all the other girls to pick out the wedding dress as well as the bridesmaid dresses; they had a great time together.

The father of the bride is also a friend of mine. He shared with me all the plans they were making for the big day. And, of course, he let me know all those plans required him to open up his wallet.

Our family received our invitation to the wedding and made plans for that weekend to attend. Then it happened. About two weeks before the wedding, we received word the engagement had been called off. We were told both the bride and groom said they knew this was what God wanted. I can only imagine how hard it must have been to make that decision and then to share it with family and friends.

“Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word” (Proverbs 16:1, The Message).

If ever there is an occasion when people make elaborate plans, it would be a wedding. For the couple, marriage is a celebration bigger than the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas all rolled into one. But in everything God has the final word. It is God’s will, plan and purpose that will prevail when all is said and done.

We need to remember God’s ultimate authority. That’s why James reminds us not to boast about our plans but to say, “If God is willing.” (See James 4:13-17.)

God wants us to plan for the future. He has given us an imagination to dream about the possibilities before us, to talk about our hopes and receive the counsel of others. If the Lord is willing, we put our plans into action, but even then the results belong to God. Wise planning can help us to discover God’s will, and as we move forward in absolute faith in God we can trust the Lord with the outcome.

I want God’s will for my life, even if being in the center of His plan for my life means I experience pain and disappointment. God has the last word, and when my life is over I want those words to be, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

— D. Greg Ebie is senior pastor of Praise Assembly of God in Garrettsville, Ohio, and an author of Daily Bread devotionals.