Hope you had a good Thanksgiving holiday if you celebrate the holiday. Mine was good and I spent it with friends. Hope you spent it with people dear to you whether family or friends. The food was good, and had to watch myself that I wouldn't overdo it.
I am thankful that God has done a lot of things in my life, most which I did not understand at the time. I look back now and I am thankful that He allowed certain things to happen which resulted in bitter disappointments. There are many plans and ideas and so forth I have pursued which were not according to His will and so out of mercy, they were major flops. I look back now and I think about how different life might have been, had some of my plans worked out. God was definitely not in the picture and who knows if I would even still be alive if they had all worked out.
I am sure some of you agree with me that life does not always turn out as planned. In fact, it never turns out as we plan it. I, like some of you mapped out a course of how I was going to achieve my heart's desires complete with the plans B to D in case if A failed. A didn't work out and God did not allow B to D to come into effect. So on paper, my plans were good but all failed. Good or excellent as they seemed, they did not work out.
Something was wrong with the picture! They were my plans and God was foreign to me at the time. The things that I planned to achieve would serve not only to foster self-dependence but also to alienate me from Him who was drawing me. I will explain what I mean by self dependence later. I planned according to my will and to fulfill my desires and yet God had a plan to fulfill His desires in my life.
My plans as of most included to become rich, powerful and so forth. They were all about living in the now never considering the hereafter. It was all about what I could see or feel and never about the riches which are real that God desires for me to have which are yet invisible. There are many who plan and labor towards achieving all these things but in the case that they do achieve success are not satisfied and want more or it is short lived.
When God is foreign to us, we labor in vain to achieve the goals we set according to our will as is written:
[3] What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
[8] All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
[9] The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
[10] Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
[11] There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
[14] I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Ecclesiastes 1:3, 8-11, 14.
All is vanity, when we labor to achieve our plans according to our will not His. Why is it vanity? Because it is written:
[19] Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
[20] But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: Matthew6:19, 20.
The Lord would rather have us desire the true riches which are His that are eternal which can not be stolen or destroyed.
The things we labor so hard for are vain because they never satisfy and are temporary. We can not take them with us when we die as is written;
[21] ...Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away... Job 1:21
All these things are vain because they are temporary, do not satisfy and are illusions. They are illusions because they are not what they seem or what they promise to deliver. Most of us spend our lives chasing these illusions and it is like chasing the wind so to speak. We spend our energy and time, the best of ourselves chasing vanity, sometimes at the expense of time and relationships with those most dear to us! A mansion owned today can be lost in a foreclosure tomorrow. A car owned today can be repossessed tomorrow. A hard earned education is not a guarantee of a job or success. Climbing up the corporate ladder does not mean the company will be open next month. A world record is broken today and someone else breaks it tomorrow. These are just a few examples of those things some might pursue as ultimate objects of their desires. One can be at the peak of success in life today and die unexpectedly the next day. If life revolves around their achievement, that means there is nothing else to live for if not achieved but I say there's more to life.
God out of His mercy hinders the pursuit of these vanities by causing our plans to flop. The more we are invested in their achievement, the more bitter the disappointment. Do not get me wrong. I am not saying people should not be ambitious or strive to achieve their dreams. All these things can be achieved if God's will but it is unwise to make the life object the achievement of these things. What I am trying to get us to think about is that there's more to life. It is wisdom to realize that nothing under the sun is permanent. If nothing is permanent, should we invest our everything in it or in those things which are permanent, those things which are everlasting? The only things which are permanent and everlasting are God's things. There is no certainty with anything out of God's will but His as is written;
[11] For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11.
There is no certainty in pursuit of anything under the sun but there is an expected end to God's things.
Why is it mercy when God allows plans to flop? It is mercy because it is His hope that we will cease from chasing these vanities and realize His will for our lives. If your plans are the center of your world, they can serve to draw you further and further away from Him, which is not His desire because that's all you see and nothing else. What is God's will for our lives which is the reason for flops in our plans?
[38] For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
[39] And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
[40] And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:38-40.
The Lord's will for our lives is for us to have an expected end, that if we believe on Him, can have Eternal life. God's will is not for us to die but to live Eternally if we believe in Christ that He died for our sins. That is the big picture God would like us to understand. Our plans can serve to distract us from this big picture and they are not worth losing our souls over if everything revolves around them. It is mercy on His part because we are blinded by the desire for our plans to work out according to our will. A good example is the following:
[15] And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
[16] And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
[17] And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
[18] And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
[19] And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
[20] But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
[21] So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. Luke 12:15-21.
This man was blind to the fact that we live by God's power and will as is written:
[28] For in him we live, and move, and have our being;
He forgot that it was not because he was so smart or such a good farmer that he yielded plentiful harvests. He forgot that to be alive at that moment was a gift from God. He accredited his success to himself instead of giving credit where it was due. He thought he had it made and unfortunately did not know that that day would be his last. He was rich in his own eyes and poor in God's eyes. This is that self-dependence I mentioned earlier. All his success he attributed to himself and forgot that God had made it all possible as is written:
18] But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth. Deuteronomy 8:18.
The people of old like Abraham were wealthy. Jacob, even Job were all very wealthy, but they understood the big picture as is written:
[10] For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:10.
As wealthy as he was, he did not let the present distract him from the big picture that all he had at the time was temporary, the real riches he looked forward to were the city in the hereafter whose builder and maker is God. He did not allow present achievements or successes divert him from the real goal which was to make it to this city. He understood that all he achieved and accumulated while walking this earth was temporary, that he was just a pilgrim passing through on his way to this city. All these men walked according to God's will and understood the big picture. It is this understanding that led Job when he lost all his children and wealth to say:
Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. Job 1:21.
This applies to us also. There is nothing wrong with wealth, influence or any of these things which most of us seek after, as long as they are in God's will. Joseph rose from being a slave to governor in Egypt, but he never lost sight of God the whole time and God put him in the high position to achieve his will. He did not seek the high position but God put him there. The same with Daniel who rose from being a young slave in Babylon to being the King's advisor. He did not lose sight of God and served in the capacity God had placed him in and God was glorified in the process. It is when we make these things the object of our existence that we are in trouble. It is wisdom to understand like Job that just as God gives all these things, He can also take them away.
God blesses us but often times we lose sight of Him being the source of blessing. When He decides to take away what He gives us we become bitter and angry and might even curse Him. The more attached to the blessings, the more disconnected we become to the source of the blessings, and the more bitter we are at losing those things. The more detached from these blessings and cognizant of His hand in all of life's affairs, the more we understand that just as He gives, He can also take them away. Nothing is permanent under the sun. We don't own anything. We manage what he gives us but don't own anything. We are stewards and manage what he gives us. But the big picture is:
[39] And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
[40] And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:39, 40.
The big picture is our salvation. God will allow things to happen in our lives if they can help us to understand His will for our lives, which is for us to live. He will do whatever it takes and that might mean plans flopping, losing jobs, homes, wealth if any of these things prove to be distractions in the fulfillment of his plan in our lives. Once we understand that we live, move and have our being in Him, and that He desires one thing which is for us not to perish but to live, that is the beginning of real wisdom as is written:
[10] The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Proverbs 9:10.
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