God’s Plan

He Has A Plan In Your Suffering

Posted on by Justice

Last year I wrecked my car. I only had it for a few months, and I was crushed when I heard it was totaled. Sadly, I didn’t respond to it in the right way. I began to ask why God was mad at me. I wondered what I had done wrong to warrant the loss of my vehicle. Ultimately, I became irritable and grumpy any time a situation arose where I wanted to drive. When I look back on it, I wish I had taken the time to read Job and taken to heart the message it bears.

Let’s start with some context, who was Job? The Bible explains in Job 1:1-3: “In the land of Uz there lived a man named Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the east.” Job was blameless he didn’t sin against God, and he did everything for the Lord. It makes sense why things went so well for him.

Well, the Bible tells us that one day the devil came before the Lord and challenged Him. Job 1:9-11 says: “‘Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge of protection around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.'” God accepts the challenge and allows Satan to take away everything from Job except for his life.

Following the tragedy that befell him, Job’s friends show up to mourn with him and give him counsel. They all explain to him that he must be harboring some unconfessed sin that has caused God to become angry with him. Job replies to them by explaining that there is no sin that he is holding onto, but his friends remain unconvinced. They all believed that for bad things to happen to Job, he must have angered God.

After the conversation with his friends, the Lord appears to Job and begins to question him. Job 38:1-5 says: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring line across it?” God explains to Job that he has no right to question Him. He explains that Job is unable to see all that He does, and ultimately doesn’t see His plans. In Job 42:2-3 Job replies to God saying: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know.” Job came to the realization that even when he couldn’t see it God had a plan.

In the end we can see how God responds to Job’s humility through his suffering. Job 42:13 says: “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.”

Hopefully you can see how God wasn’t punishing Job for his sin, He was testing his faith. I learned the same thing with my car. I was angry that I had lost my car, I asked why God was mad at me, and I ultimately realized, He wasn’t. God was not trying to smite me for a past sin, He was trying to show me that He has the perfect plan. A few months after I lost my car, I started searching for a new one. God helped me to find one that was significantly better than my previous one, and He provided the money I needed to buy it. Now when I look back on that event, I am reminded of how much God loves me, and that He uses hard times to strengthen our faith.

Just like Job, we all can learn to trust God to work things out. He loves all of us, and He wants what is best. Remember, we don’t see everything that God does. He knows what He is doing, and He loves you.

If you have had a time in your life where God has used something hard to help you grow, feel free to mention it in the comments. If right now you are struggling through a tough spot, I am also happy to pray for you.

Starting Off the New Year

Posted on by Justice

Plans… We all have them, and we all let them chart the course of our lives. We often start off the new year with a resolution. Many people vow to lose weight, improve a weakness in their lives, or to try something new. I didn’t come up with a resolution for this year, but I still have my plans for the future. I want to graduate, go to a good college, and work towards a career in law. There are places I want to go and foods I want to try. Out of all the years in my life, this year holds the most plans and the highest potential for failure. I would like to challenge everyone who reads this to evaluate their plans and check for potential weaknesses that are guaranteed to cause failure.

James 4:13-17 serves as a reminder to everyone who is seeking to make their own plans. “Now listen you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

There is a lot to unpack from this verse so let’s break it down into smaller pieces and look into it. There are three things that I think we can learn from this verse. Please read through the questions below and honestly answer them for yourself.

Who is doing the planning?

How do I veiw my life?

Am I willing to lay aside my plans? If so, when?

These three questions can give us some insight into our own lives and help us to keep track of our planning. Let’s start by looking at the first question.

Who is doing the planning? Proverbs 15:22 says: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.” Do you seek advice when you are making your plans? Proverbs reminds us that we need to seek counsel when making plans, and James helps to point us in the right direction. In the passage above, he explains that we should be asking God for His plans and tuning our plans to be in accordance with His will. If our plans are God’s plans, there is no way they can fail.

How do I view my life? When we are making our plans, it is easy to start to feel invincible. We cram our schedules full multiple years into the future. There is just one problem with this. James explains that we are like a mist. We show up for a short time and then we are gone. We need to remember this when we are planning. Our lives are short, so we ought to be using them to bring glory to God and to prepare for eternal life. In The Great Divorce CS. Lewis said: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.” When we die will we be the ones who said to God “thy will be done”? If we do, that means allowing for His will to be done in every aspect of our lives, even in the plans we hold so dearly.

Am I willing to lay aside my plans? This is the final question I think we ought to be asking. “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” This is a reminder that no matter how important our plans may seem, we need to be ready to lay them down and listen to God. His plans are always better, and we need to be ready to let Him lead.

Whatever your plans for the new year are, we all need to surrenderer them to God. Without council our plans will fail, but if we take them to God, The Wonderful Counselor, we can succeed. God wants what’s best for you and He will work everything out if you trust in Him.