A Plan

Psalm 43:3-4 Give me your lantern and compass, give me a map, So I can find my way to the sacred mountain, to the place of Your presence, To enter the place of worship, meet my exuberant God, Sing my thanks with a harp, magnificent God, my God. (Msg Bible)

There are some days we would give anything to have clear, concise, drawn out instructions from the Lord to get from where we are to a sense of being in the very place at the very time God wants us there. That is the long way to say ‘in Gods perfect will’. Sometimes our pain is great and like Esau we would trade our birthright for this object. Unfortunately he traded his position and future for a bowl of soup. His mind was only on the moment, he was hungry and what good would the future do for him if he died now. We make a lot of trades in life; hopefully our trades are more equally balanced that Esau’s.

So as I ponder this idea I wonder what am I trading or willing to trade for this goal. The first thing that comes to mind is ‘Trust’. I have lived long enough to know God is looking for a daily walk with me and He knows if I have ‘the plan’ I will more than likely run off and do what I can and then call out when I am overwhelmed or face an obstacle I can’t see around. So getting to the point that we recognize the walk is as important as the destination is vital. A good example is Abraham, when asked to sacrifice his son, the very thing he was promised by God. There has been a lot of conjecture about what his thought process was and God did not have the writers of the story share with us Abrahams why, just that he was willing to do as asked and it was God’s responsibility for the outcome. Abraham could trust God’s promise even though he could not explain it or map it out, he just believed.

So perhaps the important part of these verses above are the gifts we can give to God. We come to a place that we set our hearts aside for worship-it isn’t the place, we meet with God and sing praise because no matter how our life appears to us or to someone else –our magnificent God is in control. His promise to us: to finish the work He has begun in us.