TO MY FLOCK AT MARION
God’s Plan is Bigger Than my Plan
I hope and pray that all of you are well. I hope that everyone is reading their devotionals during this time of stress and separation in our nation. Today I would like to focus on the reading for Friday, the fourth week of Lent. The reading at the beginning is not Biblical, it comes from the Apocrypha, part of a collection of books written between the old and new testaments, not considered to be a part of God’s word to His people. I would like to focus on the reading that is included from the book, “With Burning Hearts”. It speaks of God becoming a child; Jesus the Savior of the world lowering Himself to become human and dependent on human care. It walks us through every step of our Savior’s life, all the way till His death. Let me quote the last line because it is important and something that I have preached often. At the very end of the story, He stands there looking at us, asking with eyes full of tender expectation: “Do you love me?” and again, “Do you love me?” and a third time, “Do you love me?”
How many times, especially during these trying times, have we, at least for a moment, felt sorry for ourselves? I know that I have. It’s hard to understand why God, who loves His people, would allow us, me, to go through such things. It is so easy for us to think that we deserve so much better. After all, we are basically good people, we try to do the best that we can, we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, so why aren’t things easier? It is so easy for us to forget that while God has a wonderful plan for every one of His children, His plan is all inclusive, and it cannot be all about us. Times such as these give us the wonderful opportunity to know this and practice it. A lot of our stores have made a time just for those of us who are older to shop. There were many good reasons for them to do this. First to protect those who are at higher risk from being infected with the virus, but there was another reason that I heard on the news. People were actually, pushing, and shoving the elderly out of the way so that they could get to the important items on the shelves first. This is a perfect example of a “me first” attitude that exists in our culture today. As Christians we are taught to look out for others especially the least among us. We are tested in this time of crisis, will we act like followers of Jesus and trust that God will take care of us, or will we act like the rest of the world, pushing the helpless out of the way to make sure that we take care of ourselves. It’s easy to act like a Christian when things are going well, but these are the times when our faith can shine through and we can truly be Christian.
God’s plan is bigger than my plan. God’s plan and purposes are right. We know this, but it is so hard to live this concept. Why, as believers, do we struggle so much over what we want, and feel like we need. There is a very simple answer but none of us really want to hear it or acknowledge it. We refuse to turn our lives completely over to God. I’m not saying that you are not a Christian, but what I am saying is that we have accepted Jesus, but we have not let go of our own will. We pray, “Thy will be done”, and then we go through our lives doing everything in our power to achieve our own will. In order to truly seek God’s will, we must first answer the question and answer it honestly. Jesus looks at us and says, “Do you love me?” What is your honest response? Quoting from the devotional our response must be like Peter, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” And then we leave it all in God’s hands.
Say the prayer: Gracious and loving God, give me the grace to put my expectations for life in your hands. Amen.
Your Pastor
Bob
March 29, 2020
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