by: Cris Corzine-McCloskey
Can you mess up God’s plan for your life? Most believers would probably answer yes to that question. But before you rush to answer, let’s dig a little deeper.
I understand where this idea comes from. When I first became a believer, I would hear others sit and talk about God’s “perfect” will versus His “permissive” will, and if you didn’t follow His “perfect” will He had to re-calculate His plan. I pictured God as some Cosmic GPS, always having to adjust our route. That left me with more questions than answers.
How do you surprise or disappoint an all-knowing God? If He knows you are going to do the same stupid thing 17 times before you never do it again, do you think He’s upset or excited you’re on the way to freedom? And if you aren’t factored into the plan for your life, screw-ups and all, is it a good plan or a lousy plan?
Religion has taught us to be scared of wandering off God’s perfect path, and this fear makes people neurotic. How do I know that? I’m a Christian therapist. I know what fears make people unstable. I know those who teach it aren’t trying to hurt people. But it’s harmful. I have clients who fear they messed up Jeremiah 29:11 (I know the plans I have for you, not to harm you, but to give you a future and a hope). If you believe you have messed up God’s good plan for your life, trust me on this, you are not that powerful!
Don’t believe me? Let’s see if you believe the Bible. King David said, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book (Psalm 139:16).” That means God knew about David’s “Bathsheba Incident” beforehand and still had a good plan for David’s life. His son Solomon said, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9).” There is no asterisk directing you to a footnote that says *void where prohibited.
Here is my favorite: Ephesians 3:10-11: “God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. THIS WAS HIS ETERNAL PLAN, which He carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
God knew in advance Adam would mess things up. Adam was never the answer. He knew you would mess things up because you were never the answer. The eternal plan has always been for Jesus to be the answer. It shows off God’s power to the enemy when He takes your screw-ups and uses them to transform you more into the image of His Son (see Romans 8:28-29). Trust me, the Gospel really is good news!
So get up and get over yourself. You have not out-sinned God’s grace and made Him regret ever calling you in the first place. He already knew you would be a mess, and He has plans to give you a divine makeover through it, and that is a really great plan.
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