2 Peter 3:8-9 Amplified Bible
8 Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. 9 The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia! Amen.
Many of God’s plans are detailed throughout the Bible.
He has plans for nations, for people groups, and for individuals.
Isaiah 46:10–11 summarizes what God wants us to know about His plans:
“My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.”
It’s one thing to recognize that God has an overarching plan for the world; it is quite another to acknowledge that God has a specific life plan for each person.
Many places in Scripture indicate that God does have a specific plan for each human being.
It starts before we are conceived.
Lord told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).
God’s plan was not reactive, a response to Jeremiah’s conception.
It was preemptive, implying that God specially formed this male child to accomplish His plan.
David underscores this truth: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
Unborn children are not and never will be accidents.
They are being formed by their Creator for His purposes.
That is one reason abortion is wrong.
We have no right to disrespect God’s plan and violate God’s workmanship by killing a child He is in the process of forming and shaping into His Image.
God’s plan for every human being is that each one comes to know Him and accept His offer of salvation (2 Peter 3:9).
He created us for fellowship with Him, and, when we reject the reconciliation He offers, we live at cross purposes with His plan for us.
Beyond salvation, God also designed good works for each of us according to our gifts, strengths, and opportunities (Ephesians 2:10).
He orchestrated the location, time into which each of us is born (Psalm 139:16).
If He knows the number of hairs on our heads, then He knows us better than we know ourselves (Luke 12:7).
He knows the gifts, talents, strengths, and weaknesses He gave us, and He knows how we could best use them to make an eternal impact.
He gives us opportunities to store up treasure in heaven so that, for all eternity, we can enjoy His reward (Mark 9:41; Matthew 10:41–42).
God’s plan for each person is generally stated in Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
His plan is for relationship over duties.
When we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25), enjoying a loving relationship with the Lord, our actions indicate that closeness.
Pleasing Him is our delight.
His plan unfolds naturally as we grow in faith, mature in knowledge, and practice obedience with all we understand.
As we obey His general plan for His children, we discover His uniquely designed plan for us individually.
We know God’s plan for those who know Him includes reaching others with the good news of reconciliation and salvation (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 5:20).
His plan is for His children to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).
He wants us to grow in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18).
He wants us to love other Christians the way He loves us (John 13:34).
As we diligently read, and study and follow His Word, we will discover our own spiritual gifts and abilities that specially suit us to serve Him in unique ways (2 Corinthians 12:4–11).
God’s plan unfolds in our lives as we use all we have exclusively for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).
We often become impatient in wondering what God’s plan is for our lives.
But it is not as complicated as we make it out to be.
God’s plan for us is revealed a little at a time as we follow Him, and His plan may look different in different seasons of life.
Hypothetically …
A middle aged person working hard to support the responsibilities of career and family, an older person working hard to successfully get into their retirements.
An already retired person looking to quietly move and gradually settle into their “time away” years, a young person may ask God to direct their steps to His plan for their lives and believes college or vocational training is part of that plan.
But halfway to their happiness and joy through their plans for themselves, they fall ill and must spend an extended and unknown period of time to rest, recover.
Are they now out of God’s plan?
Not if their hearts and souls are set to focus exclusively upon Him.
In that time of rest and recovery and rehabilitation, the young women meets a young man who becomes her husband.
They both love the Lord and desire to serve Him and believe that His plan for them is some ministry or mission field which they have had their hearts upon.
They begin planning and preparation, but halfway through the training, she becomes pregnant with what becomes an unplanned high-risk pregnancy.
Did they miss God’s plan?
Does the Lord have a plan to forsake them?
Has the Lord got a “plan B” to abandon them when things go awry?
Will the Lord abandon or forsake the middle aged person when plans change?
Will the Lord subtly or suddenly turn His face or His back unto the aged when their lives subtly, or suddenly become diverted by health or financial concerns?
Will the Lord change His plan for everyone to come to know Him in these times or from these times and seasons?
Not at all.
Proverbs 16:1-4 English Standard Version
16 The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the spirit.[a]
3 Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.
4 The Lord has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.
We must recall, God guides and Shepherds us in and unto HIS plan not our own.
The answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
The Lord alone is the one who weighs the spirit.
Commit your work unto the Lord and your plans will be established.
The Lord has made everything for its purpose.
The Lord alone has made everything beautiful in its time.
Ecclesiastes 3:10-13 English Standard Version
10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
All this is of God, from God alone, to fulfill God’s own purpose, plan for them.
Hypothetically,
Perhaps because of their experience caring for a child with special needs, they are able to get closer to God and minister to other families with similar needs.
A person coming through the harsh reality of a Cancer diagnosis may find the need to share their experiences with treatment and surgery – to give comfort.
Whatever was “their planned mission field” will subtly, suddenly look much different from the one they had envisioned, but it is now God’s plan for them.
Hopefully, Prayerfully, Faithfully, Lovingly so …
They are able to look back and see God’s hand in every turn along their way.
Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 English Standard Version
Fear God and Keep His Commandments
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.[a] 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with[b] every secret thing, whether good or evil.
“Will God please make up His and my mind so I will know what I am to do!”
We will struggle mightily acknowledging and accepting God’s plan as rarely being a straight shot to, as much as we can tell anyway, a clearly visible goal.
Psalm 57:2 English Standard Version
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
His plan requires of us a journey, illustrated so well in Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, and that journey may be filled with detours and diversions, sudden and slow crawls, stops, and hosts and myriad and myriads of confusing turns.
Psalm 138:8 English Standard Version
8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Romans 8:28 English Standard Version
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,[a] for those who are called according to his purpose.
But if their hearts and their souls are genuinely set to obey Him in all that they know to do, then they will be at, in the center of His will every step of the way.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 8 The Message
8 God, brilliant Lord,
yours is a household name.
2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.
3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why take a second look our way?
5-8 Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
bright with Eden’s dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us stewards of sheep and cattle,
even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
whales singing in the ocean deeps.
9 God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 