Are You Second-Guessing Your Past Decisions?
What Paul Teaches About Our Plans
A marketing consultant once told me how a company slogan must emotionally resonate with the target audience. For my former company, she suggested we adopt the slogan, “Predict Certain,” because, as she explained, one of the deep human desires is to be in control, know all, and shape our own destiny.
We all wish we could predict the future with certainty. Then our initial plans could always prove true. This deep desire is not fulfilled in a slogan — nor any technological solution — but rather, it points to our need to rest in an omniscient God.
I am writing this post for people whose plans have gone off course and now need to make a new decision. Here are three truths to trust amidst your struggle.
Image credit: Cabel Jones (gcalebjones) on unspash.com
1. We make plans but God’s purpose prevails.
Have you ever wanted to go somewhere for godly reasons, even telling people you’ll be with them soon, but then your plans change?
If so, you’re just like the Apostle Paul. And it’s fair to ask, isn’t that fickle? Paul asked this himself in 2 Corinthians 1:17.
Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?
He wanted to visit Corinth on his way to Macedonia. They were looking forward to him coming. But he didn’t come. He was diverted. He goes on to explain what happened; he wasn’t being fickle.1
We make plans. God edits them and makes them better.
Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
(Prov. 16:9)
2. God gives wisdom to choose between open doors.
Some people falsely think God provides one clear “open door” for you to enter when you need to make a decision. This isn’t always the case! It’s true that God opened doors in the past for the Gentiles (Acts 14:27), for a messiah-figure (Isaiah 22:22), and for Paul to work in Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:9).
God can even make a locked prison door open for Paul and Silas with an earthquake (Acts 16:26), but that doesn’t mean God will give you a clear door to walk through in your circumstance. Descriptions of them are not necessarily prescriptions for us.
Also, there can be more than one open door. Paul once said he “found that the Lord had opened a door for me” to preach the gospel in Troas. But, despite this open door, Paul said he didn’t stay in Troas since, “I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there,” (2 Cor. 2:12).
The Apostle chose not to enter one open door since another was open, too.
God has promised, “I have plans for you,” but he has not promised to tell you those plans. Sometimes a loved one takes priority over a ministry opportunity, or in Paul’s case, you minister on papyrus2 first and in-person much later than expected.
While there are some decisions with one clear moral and Biblical approach, there are other times — many times — when various open doors are equally glorifying to God and the best choice is to just pick one.3
God has promised to give you the wisdom you need, as long as you:
Call out to God for wisdom in prayer (James 1:5).
Commit your plans to the Lord (Prov. 16:3).
Consult your godly friends and advisors (Prov. 13:30, 15:22, 19:20).
3) God may have given you desires for unachievable tasks.
Despite all of Paul’s ministry success, God frequently hindered his plans.
“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now),” Rom. 1:13.
I have seen many friends desire one thing in life only for God to give them another. I have seen this in my life, too.
At age thirty-one, I left a stable career to move into a new one, only to be redirected into a role I never imagined. I then doubted if my original desire in leaving was good or not. I had spent a lot of time in prayer and planning making that difficult initial decision to leave, it felt like God’s will. But I had to realize that God can work through unfulfilled desires — that’s exactly what he did with Paul.
Not only was Paul’s trip to Rome delayed, but his ultimate desire of going to Spain (see Rom. 15:24, 28) never happened.4
Can you imagine the great Apostle Paul, the man who said he learned to be content in all things, sitting in heaven wishing he would have never desired to go to Spain? Of course not.
God can use our unfulfilled desires to fulfill his more fruitful plan.
As you go and make your new plan, set your mind and heart on the things above. Remember you’re a child of the Father, justified by grace alone, and in the hands of an omniscient God who will work all things together for good.
And don’t worry too much — his plan will prevail, regardless.
See 1 Cor. 1:12-2:4 for Paul’s full explanation. See also an explanation of Paul’s visits to Corinth here: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/paul-changes-his-travel-plans
While the technology of Paul’s time for distant communication was papyrus, in our day that might be pen-and-paper, Zoom, or Virtual Reality.
I am inspired here by Kevin DeYoung’s short book Just Do Something, which argues the same point.
Most scholars I’ve read seem to think Paul never made it to Spain. As I researched this for the sake of this blog post, I did find some evidence that Clement of Rome, writing at the end of the 1st century, stated that Paul went to “the limits of the West.” So perhaps he did. We just don’t have any evidence of any actual ministry there.