Proverbs 16:1-3 — The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

I love this time of year. In our house the tree is lit, the nativities are out, we’re cranking up the Christmas shopping …
But there’s a dark side to this time of year — for me, at least. It’s the business planning season. That means a lot of work researching, collecting numbers, budgeting and trying to plan how to make things work better next year than they did last year. It’s a lot of stress and busyness!
There’s something funny about business plans. in fact it’s true for pretty much all human plans, all of the time. Our plans don’t work out the way we plan them. God’s plans, on the other hand, always work out exactly the way he planned them! “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:” (Isaiah 14:24)
There are other differences between God’s plans and my plans. One thing is that my plans are mostly for my benefit — and God’s plans are usually not for God’s benefit, but for somebody else’s: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Another thing is that when I make my plans I think I know why I’m making them — but the truth is that there are many times that I’m not really honest with myself. If I really dug deep into my heart, I know I’d find my motives are often a lot more selfish than I’d like to admit. God, on the other hand, is good. Jesus said of His Father, “... there is none good but one, that is, God …” (Matthew 19:17)
The last difference that I’m going to call out between my plans and God’s plans is that my plans are pretty short term. Even if I had a plan that covered my whole adult life it wouldn’t stretch much more that forty years so far. God’s plans, on the other hand, stretch for thousands of years. His plan for man runs from Genesis to Revelation, creation to redemption. His complete plan runs from before the beginning of time to beyond the end of time. That’s long term!
I’m so grateful for the Master’s plans. Just another reason to worship!