Be Confident In God's Plan!

BE CONFIDENT IN GOD'S PLAN!

Who all knows that God has a plan?  Who all knows that His plan is beneficial to all who believe on Him?  Who all trusts God's plan, and knows why they should trust it?  Seasoned Christians know of God's plan, and know they have reasons to trust Him, but how many of them can witness of it to the unsaved?  Some of them will have these questions, and we as the believers need to be ready to answer at a moment's notice!  "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." (2 Tim. 4:2)

First of all, we need use Scripture to fortify all our speaking, for if we speak without a foundation, our speech is as a wall with no foundation, that can be pushed over with a little force.  "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

God's love is perfectly faithful to man, and thus His love and also His wisdom is superior to man's, profitable to salvation, extrememly abundant in blessings of joy and fertility.  "Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.  'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways', saith the LORD.  'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.  For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.  Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.'" (Isa. 55:6 - 13)

Give thanks to God, for He is sovereign and great over all the nations, and national pride is vanity and for naught.  "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing.  And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.  All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity." (Isa. 40:15 - 17)  What ruler is there that is great?  Or what judge is there that is formidable?  God governs the world! He can lift rulers or judges, or smash them like bugs and uproot them as weeds!  "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.  Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and He shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble." (Isa. 40:22 - 24)  The ruler of any land is either a blessing or a punishment upon the people of it!

God's will is perfect, and He provides for the needs of His people with it.  What obedient nation has God left unprotected?  Even when His people have strayed so far, with His punishment that they should remember Him, so comes His healing hand; when they repent, He heals their land, and returns them unto it!  "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chron. 7:14)  Remember, though, that God will not be with those people who are against Him, even if they are called by His name!  Remember the lessons of the book of Judges.  God provides for the needs of His people; "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.  I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.  I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." (Isa. 41:17 - 20)

Who knows how the will of God is accomplished?  From the very beginning, it was spoken from the mouth of God!  "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isa. 55:10 - 11)  "And God said, 'Let there be light': and there was light."  (Gen. 1:3) "And God said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'" (Gen. 1:6)  "And God said, 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear': and it was so." (Gen. 1:9)  You get the picture; God speaks, and His will is accomplished!

But look, we have been sinful, even wicked.  I have, you have, and come to think of it, who is there who has not been?  Who are we to hope that God's will be done for our benefit?  His plan is perfect; His will is faithful, even unto us who have sinned against Him!  "Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isa. 55:6 - 7)  This is wonderful news to the sinner, but the unbeliever may ask, "Well, how do I know He's around to listen?"  We have this promise: "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'" (Heb. 13:5)

Praise God for His plan and for His wisdom, for man's wisdom is utterly foolish compared to God's!  "Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb,  'I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself; that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; that confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, "Thou shalt be inhabited"; and to the cities of Judah, "Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof": That saith to the deep, "Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers": That saith of Cyrus, "He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure": even saying to Jerusalem, "Thou shalt be built"; and to the temple, "Thy foundation shall be laid."'" (Isa. 44:24 - 28)

One thing is for our confidence, that we should believe in Him, and come to Him, and repent of anything we have done out of His will and out of His commandments and statutes, and that is that He is faithful and forgiving and merciful.  "It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness." (Lam. 3:22 - 23)  Paul made a statement to make great the confidence of the Romans, and it should be a great confidence to us, too; "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:35 - 39)