The one thing you can count on is change

Having a plan doesn’t prevent challenges. Sometimes, life gets more difficult because our circumstances are not what we’ve planned.

We don’t know what will happen or how things will change. No one plans for cancer, early death or wayward children. Few start their marriages thinking it will end in divorce, and few enter a career expecting to be let go.

We make plans to succeed, but never to fail.

All Plans Are Subject to Change

Nothing is certain, except that Jesus is with us through all of life’s challenges and changes. Don’t take this as an excuse to abandon plan-making altogether. Our actions now will influence our lives later. Plans help us establish a general direction of what to work toward.

We must prepare for the future, but when our plans become our idols, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. You might get to marry your college sweetheart, buy your dream house and have kids. And, you might not. We can’t become so attached to our plans that we refuse to follow Jesus when He leads us another way. If God tells you to go another direction, obey Him. God is with us and for us. He’s got better plans for us than we have for ourselves (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

Moving Ahead One Step at a Time

The key to being both flexible and forward thinking is to rethink the way we make plans. For many of us, the best thing we can do is stop asking God to bless our 5- or 10-year plan and start asking Him about His plan.

You probably won’t get a detailed roadmap with goals for each year. Following Jesus is a journey that happens one step at a time. Even when God tells us what He plans to do, He often doesn’t tell us how it’s going to happen. God told Moses He would lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses learned how God wanted to do that one step at a time. David was anointed king of Israel when he was just a boy. He didn’t know how he would go from shepherd to king. It was a journey that unfolded as David followed God one step at a time.

Instead of obsessing over how God’s plan will come together, we need to focus on the next step God is leading us to take. We don’t need the whole plan. We simply need the next step.

So what’s next for you? Maybe you need to join a Group because you realize you can’t do life alone. Maybe your next step is to give God control of your finances or to serve others in the church. Perhaps you need to look at an area of your life that God wants to change.

What is your next step? We’d love to help you take it.