Understanding God's Plan

"God has a plan." Last week, I spoke to this common expression of faith, addressing it from the underlying assumption: the sovereignty of God. Most people believe God's sovereignty means (1) God is in control and (2) everything that happens is a part of God's design and will. In my blog, I reasoned that God has a purpose, not a plan. God is committed to growing us into the likeness of Christ. That is God's purpose. I also suggested another way of understanding God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty is manifested in God working in all things to fulfill that commitment, particularly in life's pain, crises, and chaos. God's sovereignty does not cause the events. Rather, God works in the midst of what happens to help us grow spiritually through our experience of the event.

This blog approaches "God has a plan" thinking from another direction.

One of the challenges of "God has a plan" thinking is that we don't know what that plan is! I've never known anyone who knows what God's plan is. In fact, "God has a plan" is most commonly expressed in the face of those events that we don't understand and can't explain. We can't see what God's plan is or how this particular event fits into it. It certainly doesn't make sense to us. So, in our confusion and pain, we say "God has a plan" as a way of reassuring ourselves that God is in control. It is an attempt to strengthen our faith when life's challenges test our faith. It is another way of saying, "God has a plan but I don't know what it is. So we just need to trust God."

It seems to me that "God has a plan" thinking can actually cause us to miss how God is at work. Let me explain.

"God has a plan" thinking keeps our focus on the event. It teaches us to believe that the way God works in the world is by causing things to happen. It trains us to expect God to cause things to happen. It leads us to pray for God to make things happen. i.e., we pray for healing or for a new job or for the house to sell or for someone not to die, etc. We pray about events ... particularly events that we want to happen ... events that we believe would be to our advantage. Have you noticed that we say "God has a plan" in the midst of an event that we didn't want to happen?!

Our focus on life's events causes us to miss where God is at work. God is at work is in us and through us! If we want to see how God is at work, we only need to look inside ourselves ... at the interior realm of our hearts and minds ... at how the event has impacted us emotionally-relationally-spiritually ... at the inner struggle we are experiencing because of the event.

God is at work in our struggle! Our struggle represents our growing edge. It reflects where life's realities confront our old thinking and old patterns. Our struggle is where we are powerless. It is our point of weakness. It is there - in our struggle - that God comes to us and meets us. It is there that the Spirit works. It is there - in our struggle - that the Spirit empowers us with a strength beyond our own ... that the Spirit teaches us and enlightens our understanding ... that the Spirit heals old wounds, cleanses old pain, and changes old patterns. It is there - in our struggle - that the Spirit matures us.

God does not cause the event. That's not how God's sovereignty works. God transforms the event and its impact on us. The Spirit works in us through the event to achieve God's purpose of growing us into the likeness of Christ. That's how God's sovereignty works ... at least as I understand it.

Do you understand God's plan? Can you explain it?

For me personally, I find more hope in "God has a purpose" than in a plan I can't understand.