The Plan

​Identity Found in God

​The Potter and The Clay
~ The Potter
~ The Clay
~ The Idea
~ The Plan
~ The Refining Fire
~ The Reshaped Pot
~ Living as His Clay Pot

The Plan
 
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6
 
We had a plan.  We would get married, secure solid jobs, and then start a family.  Well, we got married, both got teaching jobs, and both were ready to launch into parenthood.  However, it didn’t go down how we expected.  Month after month led to disappointment after disappointment.  But then, much longer than we planned, we finally were able to have our first baby boy.
 
We had a plan.  Let’s have our children close together in age.  I got pregnant when our oldest was not quite 1 ½ , which would make them right around 2 years apart, just as we planned.  But, about 2 months into the pregnancy, the heart beat faded, and we lost our baby.  Not in our plans.
 
We had a plan.  We were then blessed with two additional baby girls, and we were so grateful for our 3 gifts of life.  We got to a place when we started talking about having another child.  And so, we made a plan…and I became pregnant with our fourth child.  We thanked God for what this meant because we really felt like it was what He had for us, a reflection of recommitment in our lives.  But then, just as I made it to the safe three month stage in my pregnancy, we went in for an ultrasound.  We were shocked when we discovered there was no heart beat.  We lost another baby.  What?  This was surely not part of the plan.  The pain was so intense as our plans were squelched so strongly.  God saw us through that storm, and on the other side, we were blessed with our 4th child.  My heart cries out for those of you who suffer from infertility, from miscarriages and still-born births.  Take heart – God IS with you and is loving you through it all!
 
 I could write about countless times I felt my plans were crushed.  I am a planner, a list-maker.  I am invigorated when there’s an idea, a vision, and a plan to be made to get there.  But through much experience, out of many scenarios when I tried to do things on my own, I found the importance of allowing God to be the originator and implementer of the plan.  That doesn’t mean I sit back, do nothing or never dream.  Rather, I try and position myself (remember that pliable clay?) where I can be tuned in to what God’s plan is.
 
We are in the hands of a Potter who talks us through His plan.  Scripture tells us that, in His time, He reveals Himself to us.  He wants to be made known.  To understand and walk in His plan, I believe Proverbs 3:5-6 sums it up nicely!  Not my understanding, but His.  When I have an idea, and devise a plan to fulfill that idea, oh how crucial it is to first lean into Him, submit, surrender what may be MY idea and plan, so that His ways are what I walk in.  Just as someone comes up and says, “Hey I have an idea”, we can also launch into our own ways and follow with, “Ok – here’s the plan…”  Our plans may get us to a certain point, but the plans of our Potter will bring us into completion.
 
Psalm 94:11 says, “The Lord knows all human plans, He knows that they are futile.”  While Psalm 33:11 says, “But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”  When you sense God has an idea, sit with Him, and invite Him to make the plan with you.  Know, as it says in Jeremiah 29:11, God’s plans are good, ultimately and at the core, they are good.  Not by our measure, but through His understanding His ways are good.  Be full of hope that your Potter has a plan that He is fulfilling in each crevice of His creation in you.  He had an idea, and is fulfilling a plan to follow through with His idea.
 
Isaiah 29:16 – “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”?  Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”?”  Spend some more time with your Potter.  Just as He reveals an idea, ask Him what His plans are to fulfill the idea.  Write down what you sense He has in mind?