Sermon Central
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God Is The Great Planner
Contributed by Efren V. Narido on Jan 1, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: God is not only a Healer, Savior, King, Creator, Protector, Comforter, and other positions we are familiar with Him but He is also a Planner!
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope.
The verse shows that God is not only a Healer, Savior, King, Creator, Protector, Comforter, and other positions we are familiar with Him but He is also a Planner!
And what a Great Planner He is!
Some of us could easily appreciate God as Healer, Protector, Provider, Creator, Savior, etc., but do we really see His Worth as Planner?
Do we regard Him as the real Planner? Do we consider Him as the One who can effectively plan for our life, as we consider Him as the One who can effectively heal our cancer? Do we look up to Him as Powerful Planner, as we look up to Him as Powerful Protector? Do we believe He is the only Planner, as we believe He is the only Savior?
It’s time to acknowledge how we disgrace the Sovereign God in this aspect and should really repent of it. It’s time to value Him as the Loving, Merciful and Sovereign Planner. It’s time to lift Him up in our lives as the Great Planner not only of the material universe, not only of history, but even of our individual lives!
God’s Word asserts:
"This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?" (Isa 14:26-27, NAS)
Can we just take those words lightly? Do we believe?
Who can frustrate the plan of God? What we tend to believe is we can frustrate His plan by our freedom of choice!!
When I was young, I chose the ambition to become a Catholic priest. Now, I’m not even a member of that church. Before, I chose and plan not to marry, but now I’m a father. When I became married, my wife and I chose and plan to have only one child, now we have a son and a daughter. My wife and I chose before to have a single-floor house, now our house has even “three” floors – we can even walk on the roof – it is a slab.
There was an instance that I was alone in our house, I suffered a severe attack of asthma – I could not even choose to pray, or choose to think about God because I could no longer breath and oxygen could no longer reach my brain -- but just as my physical life was about to end, my breath was restored and now I no longer experience any difficulty in breathing, not because of my own choice!
In fact after that incident, I realized later the folly that I struggled with death. I was filled with guilt that I desired more the air than the Creator of the air!
Yes, it will be more wonderful and desirable and pleasurable to be with Him! After that, I told myself I will welcome death! And, until now, if I have my choice, I prefer to die to be with the most wonderful, lovable and delightful Being. I can honestly say with Paul, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.” But it is not yet His plan for me to be with Him. (In our place, there was a story about a man who attempted to commit suicide in three different instances and he always failed, until he just gave up the idea when a priest helped him to change his intention!)
Who can frustrate the Sovereign Planner?
Of course, there are those who believe they are the master and captain of their destiny, even their eternal destiny! I would “like” to choose that kind of belief. It’s appealing to the human ego. But what had happened in my life – even in the choice of my wife and my job – I feel I cannot choose what I like to believe – that I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul! Besides, I feel my freedom of choice is so limited and even erroneous. Fortunately, God chose and planned who would be my wife and what would be my job, so they are the best for me (They were not my original choice.) Because the One who planned them for me is the best Planner.
Just think of Joseph, who was envied and sold by his own brothers. But God’s plan for him was good – to give him a high position in the human government “to preserve many people alive” (Gen. 50:20, NAS). The envy of his brothers, their plan to kill and other evil intention, even false accusation, injustice, prison cell and ungrateful cupbearer did not prevent the realization of God’s plan for Joseph.
