Better Plans

Philippians 1:20 - For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past.  And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die.

One of the many things I admire about the Apostle Paul, is his trust in God's plan for him.

While I wasn't there physically, and I never knew him personally, I am confidently certain that prior to his conversion, Paul never had it in his heart to be want to die in prison in service to God.  The Paul we are first introduced to in Acts 7, was no doubt a Christ-hating Pharisee who wanted nothing more than to help bring down and destroy the disciples of Jesus.  Fortunately for us, God, as usual, had better plans for Saul of Tarsus.

God has His better plans for all of us.  The prophet Isaiah (my personal favorite) tells us that God's thoughts are nothing like our thoughts and that His ways are far beyond anything we could imagine (Isaiah 55:8).  Jeremiah also told us that God's plans for us are for good and not disaster, to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).

While Saul of Tarsus was growing up, I'm sure that his bucket list did not have, "Die in prison for someone I don't believe in."  But God had better plans for Saul.  His plans for him, and all of us, were far beyond anything Saul could imagine, and far beyond anything we can imagine.  His plans for all of His chosen people are great and mighty, and He promises to reveal them to us when we call out to Him (Jeremiah 33:3).  It's very easy to get impatient waiting on God to reveal His plans to us.  But God never said He would show us everything all at once.  This is actually a good thing, because our fragile human minds could not handle it.  God wants us to continue to call to Him so that He can show us more and more.

Even after his conversion on the road to Damascus, I'm sure Paul didn't add dying in prison to his bucket list.  What I believe is that he crossed everything out on it, and wrote one thing - Trust Christ.  He realized that nothing he could ever do would be more important than that.  He knew that God's great and mighty plan for him was to spread the Gospel of Christ to as many people that he could, and whatever details needed to be worked out, would be taken care of by God.

Paul didn't have a death wish.  He had a God wish.  He wasn't concerned if he lived or died, because he knew that both served the purpose of honoring the Lord (Romans 14:8).  He was concerned with what would be better for sharing God's message (Philippians 1:22-24).  This should be the concern of all us.  There is nothing wrong with having ideas about what we want to do, or where we want to go.  But God's plans and ways are better, and should be given top priority over everything in our lives.  He will never lead us down the wrong path.

Am I fully trusting God's plan for me?  Do I firmly believe that He knows better what I need?

Dear Abba Father, thank You for rescuing me from myself.  Thank You for revealing some of Your great plans for me.  I pray that I will hold tightly to my faith in You, and that Your will is done in my life.  I know I have a habit of trying to do this myself sometimes, and I pray that when I start to stray, Your Holy Spirit will convict me and bring me back into Your light.  I pray for those that want it their way all the time.  My prayer is that they will see that trying to operate outside of Your will is futile and dangerous.  I pray that they will recognize this by the power of Your Holy Spirit, and return to follow Your way for them with all their heart, mind, and soul.  In Jesus' name.  Amen!



God Bless!!!