HAVING A PLAN

Proverbs 19:21
Many plans are in a man's heart, but the Lord's decree will prevail.

Former UCLA basketball coach and legend John Wooden said this:
"Either you overcome adversity, or it overcomes you."

I believe that God wants to put us in the best possible position to be successful in glorifying Him in all we do.  But many times, we believe that it is important for us to have a gameplan and try to stick to that gameplan.  If the gameplan is our own plan of how life should be and turn out, then we shouldn't be surprised when that plan fails miserably. When we are set up to follow God's plan, then we are set to be able to withstand the crazy storms of life that we run up against.

My kids sing a song based on Matthew 7:24-27 which talks about the wise man who built his house upon the rock. It goes like this:  :)
________________________________________________________________________

The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
And the rain came tumbling down

Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the wise man's house stood firm.

The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
And the rain came tumbling down

Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the foolish man's house went "splat!" [clap hands once]

So, build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
And the blessings will come down

Oh, the blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayer go up
So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ.

_________________________________________________________________________

We must always remember that God is sovereign and His plan is perfect. How we handle adversity is a reflection of what type of plan we truly believe in. When we believe in ourselves and our plans fail, we give in to the emotion and thought process that we are losers in life and we will never be able to amount to anything.  I would say that this is a true statement in the fact that without Christ, we are nothing.  But putting full faith and belief in His plan will allow Him to use us right where we are.  Does that mean that life will be perfect?  Absolutely not!! 

Look at James 1:2-4.  It tells us that we WILL face trials and that we should be excited when we do.  That sounds nuts doesn't it.  But what's awesome is that (read on) the reason the Lord puts us through trials is to grow us and mature us.  If you ever take a few moments to ponder your dumbest decisions in life, I bet you will realize that on the other end of the spectrum, there was definite growth involved.  In many cases pain was probably involved.  But hopefully, in the end, you are now in a place in life where you can look back and say: "That was pretty stupid, but I am a better person for having gone through that." I believe that God will even give you opportunities to share with others and help them avoid some of your same pitfalls.

So as you take a moment to reflect on your life today, who do you believe is in charge right now? Are you in the boat of thinking that you call the shots and your life is your life? Or do you understand that God uses all things for His good, which includes using your life for His plan? I pray that God will give all of us the wisdom to seek Him and be an instrument/tool to be used for Him daily.

Live like Jesus!