We are officially in the new year, yet it doesn't feel like how the typical new year feels. Goal setting doesn’t seem as exciting. If you’re efficient, you’ve probably already completed all the goals you had made during COVID anyway. It seems impossible to make plans, and most of the plans we did have were canceled, so you might be wondering, what’s the point? You might be asking, where is God in all this? This might be hard to hear, but even when God doesn’t complete all of our plans, He is faithful to complete His.

You are not alone in this.

I had plans for this year and when the pandemic hindered my plans, I came up with new ones. Guess what happened to those. It is likely we are all learning what it looks like to commit our plans to God, because during this time there is no way for our sheer grit to pull our plans through. Yet, our grit is never what caused our plans to succeed. Our determination, though helpful, is not what fulfills our plans; God does if He so chooses, for “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:21, English Standard Version)

If you’ve been disappointed, take comfort that God, who is always good, has determined to carry out His plans. It should be a joy to realize that God in His perfection and wisdom does not fail to fulfill what He sets out to do.

I don’t know about you, but I am more inclined to trust the plans of a perfect God over the plans of my flawed self. What’s more, God does not neglect us in his planning process: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV) How wonderful that God would include us in His plans, establishing our steps and guide the way.

Let’s not forget that God also has a purpose for us: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28-29, ESV) Regardless of our plans, God is faithful to complete what He has started in us, that we may look more and more like Christ. This is our greatest hope, to become more patient, kind, faithful, loving, peaceful, joyful and good, to become people who bring all glory to God.

Keep making plans. Stay in the word and pray that your plans would glorify God and that He would establish them according to His will. And, if those plans don’t work out, lament over them, praise God for doing all according to His will, and keep going, keep moving forward and seeking Him; for the greatest thing of all is that God would invite us to be a part of His story.

According to Plan