What’s your Plan? Where are you going? How are you getting there? How long is it going to take you? All common questions regarding a trip or after a high school graduation when people want to know what you plan on doing with your life. They aren’t bad questions but, with Jeremiah, I’d like to answer:
“I know, O Yahweh, that a man’s way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.”
Jeremiah 10:23 LSB
A Man’s Way
What Jeremiah is admitting here is how another Bible version puts it: “we humans are not in control of our own lives.” We may think we are but we simply are not. Give this some consideration. We don’t even know what we are doing tomorrow (Prov 27:1) nonetheless next week, next year, or next decade. Yet we set plans, dream big, and devise a way in our own heart (Prov 16:9) thinking that we control our own destiny.
The reality is we have no clue where we are going. We can set a plan but then as we take one step forward we are met with countless circumstances and devices that we did not plan for. This, usually, results in our anxiety, worry, and anger as things are instantaneously not going the way that we planned.
Jeremiah’s Way
Jeremiah recognized this. So rather than devising his own way just to be met with disappointment he looks to his Maker, Creator, Lord, and King and admits that he has no idea where he is going or how to get there…but God does. God is the Chief Plan Maker. He is the one who engineers the circumstances we find ourselves in. He has a perfect Plan that He will fulfill in our lives. Our duty is to trust that plan completely. When we do this we find peace, rest, and comfort all the days of our life.
Let me take this one step further. Jeremiah knew of his tendency to still create his own plan and path so he looks to God again and says:
“Discipline me, O Yahweh, but with justice; Not with Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.”
Jeremiah 10:24 LSB
What a bold thing to ask for from God! Discipline? Absolutely. Jeremiah wanted God to correct all the areas in his life where he was still seeking his own will and devising his own plan. He wanted to make sure that every square inch of his life was wholly surrendered to the Plan (Will) of God and that nothing of “Jeremiah” remained. Anything that begins with “self” is a sin and Jeremiah wanted it rooted out of his life for the glory and honor of God in his life.
Going with Jesus (The Jesus Way)
Now when people ask you where you are going, what your plan is, and how you are going to get there, the answer is simple: I am going with Jesus. As He commanded me: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matt 16:24). Where? That is for Him to decide and ought not to be your concern. When? You begin following Him now.
We can learn from James this simple truth: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’” (James 4:13-15 LSB)
Action
- Praise God that He has a perfect plan for your life
- Confess to God your tendency to create your own Plan and get upset when it doesn’t go as you planned
- Ask God to discipline all the areas in your life where you are not entirely surrendered to His Will.
- Listen to this post’s song: going with Jesus Bonus: The Jesus Way