Your Plans May Change, But...
"After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you-for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.” (I Corinthians 16:5-9)
Class schedules are created and presented to students at the beginning of the school year. However, throughout the course of a year, they often change. You walk into homeroom one day and find the daily schedule has been adjusted. Perhaps there is to be a presentation given in the auditorium, a guest speaker in the gym, a field trip planned, or some other activity has been added that has changed the schedule. Paul is sharing with the congregation at Corinth a change in his plans.
God made plans also. At the fall into sin, God made plans. His plan was to save us. But unlike so many of our human earthly plans, God did not adjust his plan or schedule. In the Garden of Eden, God proclaimed that Jesus would crush the head of Satan and pay for sin. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus felt the full weight of those sins. He carried that burden to the cross. They were paid for in full on the tree.
God followed through on his plan. We see it clearly in the Passion of our Lord.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: How are our plans like God's plans? How are they different? Which is more often the case, and why?
PRAYER SUGGESTION: Cleanse me from my sin, take away me guilt for the sake of Jesus. Amen