Many of us like to have a plan. We have planners, we manage our family details with planners, we make plans. But sometimes, things take an unexpected turn. Maybe it's a flat tire or it's a busted pipe, job loss, pregnancy, death of a loved one, and we're flat on our behind trying to figure out what happened to our plan!
Take a moment and think of something that happened unexpectedly in your life.
I love to plan. I love to have a plan. I married a free spirit who would love nothing more than to just hop in a vehicle and start driving with no plans in place. We were 18 and 19 when we got married and had only known each other for a little over 4 months total so our honeymoon road trip to Niagara Falls took us both by surprise. I wanted to plan our stops… he didn't. He is one of those "enjoy the journey" people and I'm a "plan every detail" girl. One of many surprises about marriage we would learn to work through.
But sometimes our best laid plans fall flat.
They might be big ones like when I was halfway through my pregnancy with Joanna and the day after we signed a new and larger apartment lease to accommodate our growing family, suddenly I was fired and we had no income.
Or when we learned I was carrying twins which changed everything about our world at the time, and then again when our carefully laid birth plans went out the window and they came early.
Maybe it's just a little bump like a broken foot that rearranges plans for a few weeks, or a minor car accident that brings the added physical and financial stress to your world.
Big or small, bump in the road or steep drop off around a blind curve, in pandemic or in health, it's imperative that we always seek Scripture for our response.
In Proverbs 16:9, we see the verse, "We make our own plans, but the Lord decides where we will go." Sometimes I hear God chuckling at me as I make my plans and declarations, telling Him just how things are going to be, and then He pivots my plans with a total 'about face.'
It's important to have a plan, a goal, something we're working toward, but it's most important to lay our plans before the Lord and ask Him what he has for us. I find it helpful in these moments to physically open my hands to release control and give it to Him.
Psalm 37:4 reads, "Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart." The part we tend to focus on is the second part, but the first has to be in place because you see, if we first seek the Lord, delight in Him and what He wants for us, then we desire what He desires and He fulfills those desires. We have to be so careful with that one.
God cares about every detail. The God that created the universe in every intricate detail knows my name and yours and He has a plan for my life and yours. Sometimes, often times, His plan includes things we wouldn't choose for ourselves… and that's really hard. Overwhelming even.
That's where those open hands remind us that His plan for our life is for His glory and our good.
You know the song, by Lauren Daigle, "Trust In You?" Read these lyrics slowly, line by line, and you maybe even want to open your hands as read:
I lay each one down at Your feet
Every moment of my wandering
Never changes what You see
I've tried to win this war I confess
My hands are weary I need Your rest
Mighty Warrior, King of the fight
No matter what I face, You're by my side
When You don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move
When You don't part the waters I wish I could walk through
When You don't give the answers as I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!
Truth is, You know what tomorrow brings
There's not a day ahead You have not seen
So, in all things be my life and breath
I want what You want Lord and nothing less
When You don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move
When You don't part the waters I wish I could walk through
When You don't give the answers as I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!
I will trust in You!
You are my strength and comfort
You are my steady hand
You are my firm foundation; the rock on which I stand
Your ways are always higher
Your plans are always good
There's not a place where I'll go
You've not already stood
When You don't move the mountains I'm needing You to move
When You don't part the waters I wish I could walk through
When You don't give the answers as I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!
I will trust in You!
I will trust in You!
I will trust in You!
Those are powerful and scary words. Don't sing them, say them, think them carelessly.
I want to encourage you right now to pray and try laying out open hands and pray that He will help you surrender to His plans, this is a physical reminder that helps me tremendously and I pray the exercise blesses you in your journey with Our King.
