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It took me ten years before I came to that place of letting go of my dreams and relinquishing them for God’s plan for my life. Ten years of doing my own thing, running my show, determined to get what I wanted. In those ten years had you asked me if I wanted to live according to God’s plan for my life, I probably would have said yes, but it would have just been a cover-up because in truth, I wanted God to bless my plans. I wanted my dream to come true—hopefully with God along for the ride—but one way or another, it was my way or the highway. Is that where you are?
Take it from me: Don’t waste ten years or ten minutes trying to make your dreams come true. Trust a trustworthy God who has better plans than yours and who loves you unconditionally. During the eighteen months of grieving the loss of my dream, there were days when I just about didn’t make it. I came so close so many times to taking back the controls of my life into my own hands. But thankfully, I was spending time in God’s Word, I was getting to know God, and I knew I just couldn’t turn back.
What finally became so clear to me was that my basic problem was I was afraid to trust God. And then I realized not only how stupid that was, but how sinful it was for me to trust myself and not the God who made me.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
There is no reason for you to fear God’s plans for your life. Satan has told you lies about how miserable your life will be if God is in control, and he’s a good liar. The God of heaven and earth is a trustworthy God. You can trust him.
Moses is a case study of a man who came to understand that God had a plan for his life and it was a good one. You know how his life was saved as a baby by a very creative mother and sister. As Moses grew to manhood, he was educated as an Egyptian with all the privileges that came from being raised as Pharaoh’s daughter. No doubt his future looked bright and promising because he was the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
But he never forgot that he was a Jew, one of God’s chosen people, so he wanted to help his people. Pharaoh kept the Jewish people in bitter servitude and they were sorely mistreated. One day when Moses saw an Egyptian beating one of his Hebrew brothers, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. He thought he was doing the right thing to defend his countryman, but the next day, when he saw two Hebrews fighting each other and tried to stop them, they turned on him and said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Well, this just blew Moses away. He thought his murderous act was a secret, but now he realized it wasn’t, and when Pharaoh heard about it, he tried to kill Moses. So Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he became a lowly, humble shepherd. For 40 years Moses lived in exile in Midian. Moses’ life and dreams were changed overnight. And it was because of something he did; something he should not have done. Regardless of the reason, murdering another man was wrong. So, through his own actions his dream dies. Now Moses figures his Plan A is ruined; he has to settle for Plan B.
Would that be your story, too? Have you brought grief on yourself because of a foolish decision or choice? Has your disobedience—your sin—caused you to now be living with regret and thinking that you’ve lost your dream and you now just have to settle for the best you can do? You’re now relegated to Plan B—or C or D?
Moses figured he had blown it so badly, that God would never use him again. But he was wrong. After 40 years, as Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law at Horeb, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. God clearly spoke to him and gave him a new assignment—to go and set his people free from Pharaoh.
Moses is now a humbled man, and he insists that he cannot do it. “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” he asked. God said, “I will be with you. I am who I am, and you will tell the Israelites that ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
Moses asked, “Who am I?” but God said, “I will be with you.” Moses was asking the wrong question. He was looking at himself and judging—rightly so—that he couldn’t do this job God was calling him to do. God simply ignored his question and told him what he needed to know: “I will be with you. I AM has sent you.”
If you’re looking at yourself and asking, “Who am I?”, then you need to change your focus and change your question. Ask instead, “God, will you be with me?” We need to be humble, but when we focus on ourselves instead of on God, then that’s not real humility; that’s lack of faith; that’s doubting God; that’s fear.
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do (James 1:5-8).
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15)
Moses is right—by himself he is not capable of doing what God is calling him to do. But that’s not the point! God is going to do it through Moses!
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
Moses began that journey with God after 40 years in a desert, but it wasn’t too late. He wasn’t too old. He hadn’t made such a mess of his life that God could not redeem it, because God can redeem anybody’s story.
And furthermore, those 40 years in the desert weren’t wasted. He learned humility, and he needed humility in order to do the great things God had planned for him. Later after following God’s plan, leading the children of Israel out of bondage, parting the Red Sea—all the great things God did through him—he was called “a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). God needed a very humble man to do very great things. It was all Plan A.
What is keeping you from doing what God has planned for you to do?
:: Is it fear?
:: Is it that you have your own plan and you just want God to bless your plan?
:: Is it laziness?
:: Is it lack of trust in God’s ability to do through you what you cannot do yourself?
:: Is it a relationship?
:: Or could it be that your story has never been redeemed, because you’ve never put your trust in Jesus Christ?
Whatever it is, are you ready to give up your dream for God’s plan?
Don’t you see that God wants to take your brokenness, your mistakes, your bad choices, your shame, and turn it all into an instrument he can use? Remember how he took Moses’ rod and removed the snake that was in it, and then gave it back to Moses. That was the rod that parted the Red Sea, that brought water from the rock, that was used mightily by God in the hand of Moses. He’s the same God today, and he can do the same for you.
It’s never too late—whether it’s 40 years or more. It’s never too late to let God turn your life into something beautiful for his glory. Everything that has happened to you up to this point—every event, whether positive or negative, can be used by God. Remember, it’s all Plan A!