Master Plan

If you visit a ship or air plane in a port and ask the Captain his next point of call, he will tell you in a single sentence where he is headed, even though he cannot see his destination for 99% of the journey, he knows it is there. Barring unforeseen and unlikely catastrophe, he will reach his destination.

If someone asks you for your next point of call, can you tell him? Do you have a clear and clean goal? Do you know where you want to be and what you are to do to get there? A human being without a plan is like a ship without rudder. They just float adrift hoping to be lucky and turn up on one rich coast. Success is the progressive realisation of worthy goal. Be choosey about what you want because you will get it if you plan towards it.

God is the master planner. Like any good builder, God has a plan. When a contractor has even a small job, he draws up blueprints for the project. He also arranges a schedule for the various subcontractors and inspectors so that no step in the process is left out. With all this careful planning and the cooperation of all the parties involved, the project can be successful.

We would be making a terrible mistake if we thought that God had waded into His work without a plan! God's plan, of course, is far grander and more involved than a construction job—and also incredibly more important. Though God is Creator, the physical creation is just the environment for His most important work, creating a Family to share it with for all eternity! We find the blueprint for this wonderful, ongoing creation in the pages of the Bible.

God knew what we would grow up to look like when we were first conceived. We may claim that our age or inexperience makes us the wrong person for the task God has given us. Often our excuses are a cover for our fears and our unwillingness to surrender ourselves to the Lord’s plan for us. We should be confident that God has a plan for us that we can discern. We can look at the gifts and abilities God gives us, the burden He places on our hearts and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit to help us discover what He is calling us and equipping us to do for Him.

Living according to God’s plan is a choice. It may be a choice others do not understand or approve of. The choice may mean giving up a career, moving away from family, or having to live on less money. Yet countless Christians have chosen to follow God’s plan for their lives.

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here is what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It is the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition is not wisdom. Boasting that you are wise is not wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise is not wisdom. It is the furthest thing from wisdom—it is animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you are trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats. Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honour.