Plans



Romans 15:23-33
23But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you,
24I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.
25At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.
26For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.
27For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.
28When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.
29I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
30I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,
31that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,
32so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.
33May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

I’ve always been a planner. My favorite part of any vacation, event, or gathering is all the pre-work – the planning. And then if the plan falls apart – well, it isn’t pretty. Today we get a glimpse into some of Paul’s plans to visit Rome. If you read through the book of Acts you will find that Paul’s desire to get to Rome was huge and God stood in the way of that plan for a long time. There is an understandable sense of frustration on Paul’s part too as the story unfold. Eventually, in God’s plan and timing, Paul does indeed make it to Rome.

While Paul expresses that desire to get to Rome on numerous occasions, we don’t see him grow angry or resentful; he is merely determined. But he does stand as an example for us when it comes to our own plans for the future. The Bible doesn’t tell us never to plan and execute those ideas. If we never thought things through and planned for the future we would merely sit around and never accomplish anything. We just have to be careful about our attitudes toward those plans. The book of James addresses those attitudes.

James 4:13-15
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

What is your reaction when your plans are thwarted? Therein lay the true barometer of our attitudes. Verse 29 says it all. “I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.” It is with humility and submission that we make our plans knowing that God’s will and timing always comes before our ideas. I guess the best word would be “flexible”. I make my plans with a surrendered flexibility that makes room for the fact that God may have a better plan and unerring timing for execution. So instead I say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” Frankly, it takes the pressure off and I can relax into the goals. As a born planner it has taken a long time to get to this more relaxed place and sometimes the old me rises up and becomes sorely disappointed to see a plan fall apart. But life is a process and I’m still under construction.

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