"You can make plans but the Lord's purposes prevail." (Proverbs 19:21 NLT)
This proverb is both a correction and a comfort to us.
It’s a correction because our plans are so subject to the human condition. Sin and self mar our every effort. Our short-sightedness interferes with our ability to make sound judgement.
This morning, in the last moments before waking, I was deep in vivid dream. I had just opened an email from Columbus Eye Associates. The correspondence simply stated “We’re sorry we won’t be able to help you.” and included a ten or more page attachment with graphs and diagrams and such. Apparently: a) something was terribly wrong with my sight, b) they couldn’t address my issue and c) I couldn’t interpret the data.
This feels like our human condition: we are utterly impaired in plotting out our own course.
We make plans, but His purposes prevail. This means that we pray and plot and do our best, but at the end of the day, His will always wins. His sovereignty outperforms our bad eyesight each and every time. We may not be able to make heads or tails of our situation, but God is never in a quandary, never confused or unsure of His own good judgement. He is always able to repurpose our most well-intentioned mess for His Kingdom’s glory. What tremendous comfort we find in this truth!
After six weeks in Psalm 23, the six familiar stanzas have become a rest stop for my soul. David wrote “Your rod and staff comfort me” and Philip Keller suggests that the rod is the Word and the staff is the Spirit. God’s correction and redirection is a great comfort to us. How far off the path might we wander without his living admonition and interference? Our sight is so poor: He protects us with His rod and staff and we are consoled in the process.
And friend, it is a process! We love to quote Jeremiah 19:11 about God and His good plans, but we almost never include Jeremiah 29:10 in our recitation, let alone the verses that follow.
"This is what the Lord says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and com and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you to exile." (Jeremiah 29:12-14 NIV)
Sometimes God’s plan includes exile. Sometimes our flesh simply requires a seventy year time out. Moses spend forty years in Midian before he moved God’s people and another forty wandering around the wilderness after that. Just because we’re stalled out in the desert doesn’t mean we’re knocked out entirely. Even Jesus spent more than a month in the wasteland awaiting the revelation of His Father’s perfect plan. We are in good company when we’re waiting. Men and women can’t quite see our way forward; we need God’s help.
"I know you can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted." (Job 42:2 NIV)
Lord, today we ‘see’ just how poorly we see. How gracious You are to us in our weakness! Thank You for circumventing our poor eyesight and tending to the needs of our souls as You accomplish Your plan. May we rest in Your mercy as we wait on Your will still unfolding. Amen.