God’s Plan For Us All: We Should Each Come to Know God, As God Knows, Us. 2 Peter 3:8-9

2 Peter 3:8-9 Amplified Bible

⁸Nevertheless, 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. ⁹The 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.
²All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
    but the Lord weighs the spirit.^[a]
³Commit your work to the Lord,
    and your plans will be established.
⁴The 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

¹⁰I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹¹He 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. ¹²I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; ¹³also 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

⁹Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. ¹⁰The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

¹¹The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. ¹²My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

¹³The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.^[a] ¹⁴For 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

²I 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

⁸The 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

²⁸And 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.

²Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.

^3-4I 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?

^5-8Yet 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.

⁹God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Who is it who is Really and Ultimately in 100% Absolute Control of our Life? Just Exactly Whose Plan is it Anyway?

It is commonly thought among humans that if one wants to be somebody, he or she must find something of some measure of significance to accomplish. Most people will do this by looking all around the world to see who and what others most admire, then set their hearts on becoming that, or accomplishing it. The plan becomes to set into motion a carefully laid out step-by-step plan to try and achieve their desired end. The hope is that once they have achieved their victory, they will be somebody, be happy, or even earn some kind of salvation.

Even those who do not have even the minimal self-discipline and drive to go after their dreams will spend all of their waking time wishing and dreaming and planning the steps even if it takes the form of condemnation for their failures.

This is the proposed, supposed way of the world. It will lead to either achieving the goals and being left with pride, or worse, emptiness upon finding that the goal was not worthy. Alternatively, it will lead to failure, self-condemnation, feeling low and full of self-pity. Breaking the cycle, to understand that the Lord establishes his, her steps will set a person free from this self-destructive cycle.

Right from the beginning of all created things, God has always said to us, seek first the long planned for, created things of the Kingdom of God, and the Lord, who, from the beginning establishes all your steps, will add all things to you.

Proverbs 16:9 The Message

⁹We plan the way we want to live,
but only God makes us able to live it.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Throughout history, mankind has made their plans for what they will do each day. In the office, we start out our days with a detailed planning sheet we create for ourselves and organize our days and weeks and prioritize tasks to ensure the most important ones get done. We also make plans for holidays and vacations.

We budget our money; we set out our financial goals and make step-by-step plans with our financial planners for how we ourselves see fit to achieve them. We make, have daily planners, plans for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and other events. Expectant parents plan and prepare for a new child. Teachers make lesson plans. The corporate owner plans for his, her business to grow and expand and become profitable. It is perpetual motion. We make plans.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with planning. In fact, it is always a great idea to set goals and plan for their maximum success. If we did not, our lives would be a little here and a little there but mostly going nowhere fast– kind of like a balloon you completely blow up and then let go without tying a knot in it – and we’d really never accomplish much. Planning is definitely a good thing.

Our plans should always begin with prayer and seeking God’s will for our lives. If God has been included in our planning process right from the exact starting, we can be reasonably assured, those plans will have some measure of success. The only thing to remember here is that we are not the ones who get to define what that success is. Our personal vision of success will always be too limited.

We will probably let all the “bumps and the grinds, hills and valleys,” define whether or not we will even bother to continue that single-minded pursuit of what we ourselves define and measure out as the definition of our successes. We may end up quitting on ourselves, our hopes, our dreams way, way too quickly. We may not give ourselves the proper time to learn about perseverance in life. The glue in our “stick-to-itiveness ” will not be allowed to do its proper work.

It is here when we unceremoniously and regretfully, inconveniently, “forget” about God. When our planning is contrary to God’s will, we become guilty of sin.

In James 4:13-17, James wrote, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.’ You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, ‘If the Lord will, we will live and do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So, it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it.”

God may still allow you and me to make our own plans without properly, prayerfully consulting with Him. He will even allow you and me to make our own plans, own our own plans when you and I do not particularly like His plans or His will and decide to do things our way anyway. But you and I can be assured regardless of what you and I plan, God will be ONLY the one finally directing each and every step you and I take. And if in our arrogance and pride we choose to do things our way, God will always bring about His divine will.

The Prophet Jonah is a very familiar example of someone who didn’t like what God was telling him to do and so he trusted in himself and made his own plans. God had wanted Jonah to go preach in Nineveh and Jonah didn’t want to go.

He got on a boat and went in the opposite direction from Nineveh. As a result, a great storm came up and everyone on the boat became afraid they would die at sea. They started throwing the cargo over to lighten the boat’s load and then Jonah told them they had to throw him overboard and the storm would stop.

The sailor’s thought Jonah was crazy, but after a while, they conceded and tossed Jonah into the storm-tossed waves. God was not only directing Jonah’s steps, but he also directed the swim path of a great fish who came along at that exact moment and swallowed Jonah up. After living three days in the belly of the fish, Jonah finally repents and finally, humbly prays to God. God then has the fish throw up Jonah and Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches repentance.

Breaking Down the Key Parts of Proverbs 16:9

#1 “In their hearts…”
In most places where the heart is mentioned in Scripture, it is not looked upon very kindly. Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it” (Jeremiah 17:9)? Mark 7:21-22 says, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” The advice of others to “Just follow your heart” may work great in the movies, but it is foolish, terrible advice for the believer.

#2 “…humans plan their course,”
It is, and always will be a good and righteous thing to plan our day to a certain extent; for example, what is for dinner tonight? When will I finish my work? But the kind of planning that is not good is the arrogant kind that desires its own way and has self-promoting expectations for how things are going to go.

This is essentially mankind significantly over-extending his own abilities, taking on God’s job. James 4:13-17 calls it “boasting about tomorrow.”

#3 “but the Lord establishes their steps.”
What is going to happen is what God wants to happen. Seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:25-34), don’t worry for tomorrow, live in his presence right now, and watch him unfold his perfect plan before you.

This means consciously remembering God, to live according to his principles in his Word and lay down your life for him and for his Kingdom. You cannot even imagine what His control over your life has in store for those who trust in him.

In the New Testament, a group of shepherds made plans for tending their flock throughout the long cold night. But God suddenly interrupted their long night and sent angels to proclaim the birth of Jesus which brought the shepherds to worship the newborn King. Their plans were to simply care for their flock of sheep – God’s plans were “glorify the Lord,” to bring them to worship Jesus.

In Acts Chapter 3, A lame man who had been lame since birth had plans for going to the temple to beg for alms but as Peter and James saw him and listened to the leading of the Holy Spirit, Peter said to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.” In an instant, he was healed, and he rose up on his newly strengthened legs and went walking and leaping and praising God. The Lame Man’s plans were to get enough alms so he could eat – God’s plan was a miraculous healing.

Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has good plans for us – plans for our welfare and not destruction. If we truly believe this, then we should have no problems starting our planning time in prayer and seeking God’s will to be sure that the plans we make align with God’s will. If they do, then we can surrender our plans into His hands and trust that even if the path to get where we were planning looks different than how we planned it, that ultimately God will get us there, He will work all things out for our good (Romans. 8:28), and He will forever and ever be with us every single step of the way and keeping us from stumbling.

But if we try to go our own way like Jonah, we might find ourselves in some trouble just like Jonah did and then find ourselves right where God wanted us in the first place. Had Jonah simply cooperated with God’s plan in the first place, he could have saved himself three days in the belly of a fish – and if we will cooperate with God’s plans for our lives, we can save ourselves from all the unpleasant consequences that running from God brings. (Luke 15:11-32)

So go ahead and make your plans, but start every plan with prayer, seeking God’s will first. Then as you make your plans centered around His will, ask that your plans will bring Him honor and glory. If, like Joseph, the path getting to where God wants you looks different than you thought it would and includes a “pit” or “prison” along the way, remember that God is always with you and if the “palace” is God’s plan for you, you can trust Him to get you there at just the right moment so you are in position for what God wants to do in your whole life.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,