God’s Bigger Plan
When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
When I was a kid, my mom flew across the country for work, and I dreamed that I would one day have a job where I would travel to different places and see different things. Tomorrow, I celebrate twenty-five years at Thomson Reuters. This is quite a milestone that I am both humbled to have reached and happy to celebrate with my wife, who has stood by me all this time. It gave me opportunities to live out a dream to drive the West Coast on Pacific Coast Highway and see places I had never seen like North Dakota and South Dakota. It even flew me down to where I got to see football games with my big brother. Through all the years of people I have met and lives that have touched me at work, there is only one that led me to write devotions.
A wonderful woman named Naressa worked with me, and she sent out an email to the group asking for help with writing devotions. I volunteered for the opportunity and to ensure I would be able to be effective, she asked what my journey of faith looked like. Back then, I did not have one. Despite knowing who God was, I did not have a church home, and in fact thought I would not even get to heaven. My goal was to simply share my journey so that others may learn from the mistakes I made to ensure their place in Heaven was secured. She saw an attribute that at the time I did not: humility. Thus, my journey of faith had begun, but the truth was God had the journey plotted out all along. From the moment I saw my mother fly back and forth for work to my early days at my father’s church. From the first job where I would meet my future wife, whose faith was far greater than mine, to her celebrating my baptism shortly after being given the opportunity to write devotions. God always had a bigger plan.
There is great value in understanding your journey of faith. Paul was writing this great letter to the Corinthian church. While he certainly could have focused on his own logic and logic, his plan was to simply trust what Jesus Christ placed on his heart. Why might you ask? I guess when you rely on someone named ‘Perfecter of our Faith,’ you have a level of confidence that He will fill in the blanks. From today’s verses, Paul said, “I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.” He understood they did not need an elaborate well versed educational speech about who Christ was and their need to submit. Instead, he trusted God to literally use him to deliver His message to the people. So, to summarize what happened, Paul had no plan as to what to say, but his faith in God was so great that he simply trusted God’s plan to inspire his words for the audience. We all have travelled a journey of faith from a place of not knowing who Jesus Christ is to fully submitting to Him while increasing our knowledge daily of Him. What is fascinating is when we are fully in tune with Him, we can see where His hands were on us deliberately setting the table to further understand His ‘secret plan’ for our lives.
Trusting God is a process. It requires a level of understanding who He is, and there is no better way to understand than retracing our steps to see where He simply showed up, put a person in our life, a job offer when we needed one, or met a need when there was no other means to obtain one. He always had us in the right place at the right time. That is why Jeremiah was willing to wait so long on God when He said:
“You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” Jeremiah 29:10b-14
Let us renew our faith to follow the words of Psalm 27:14, that says, “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.” How has God’s past goodness given you assurance of His plans for you? What practice can you instill to increase your trust in Him. My prayer is we rely on not on our own plans but have greater faith in all Christ has done to trust in His bigger plan. Amen.