good or great.

"so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. then the eyes of both were opened..." 

genesis 3:6-7a

"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 a hope and a future"

jeremiah 29:11

we all have plans. whether we consciously make them or not, we have them. we have plans, expectations, hopes, and dreams. and, as a result of having plans, there are many times where things do not go according to our plan. often, flexibility is a byproduct of having our plans messed with. i can think of so many plans in my life time that have been messed with, from everything to not getting a tree house when i was little (though that was a result of me being a disobedient kid, but my plans were still messed with) to not getting to go to a concert last night that i thought i was going to get to go to. our plans get messed with. change and flexibility is forced upon us. and often, it frustrates us. the unknown frustrates us. as human beings, we like to be in control. i admit it. i am a control freak sometimes. and when people or things happen differently than i planned (because let's face it: even though i think i can control everyone's minds and behaviors, i admittedly have not reached that type of technology yet), i get frustrated. 

there really is a point to this, i promise. 

most of the time, our plans do not line up with God's plans. and then frustration and awkwardness occurs. the result of this disallignment is often our sinful nature, selfish nature, fallen nature, you name it. most of the time the reason our plans don't line up with God's plans is because our plans are for our own glory and God's plans are for God's glory. 

i had a situation in my life where things did not go according to my plan (well, i've had many of these but this is a specific one). but the thing was, i didn't think my plan was bad. from the way i saw it, my plan lined up with God's plan, and it was God-honoring. so why wasn't my plan and God's plan one and the same? why were they clashing?

when God created adam and eve and told them to live in the garden of eden, and to take care of all of the animals and plants and stuff, he gave them one rule: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. that was the only rule. they could have free reign of the rest of the garden, all its food, all its beauty, everything. just don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. one rule. simple, right? ya, uh no. whats the first thing you do when someone tells you not to do something? usually, you end up doing whatever it is they told you not to do. and in this case, satan eventually convinced them to do what they were told not to do.

but here's what i want to highlight from the verse above. "...the woman saw that the tree was good for food..." the tree itself was not bad. in fact it was good. it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it has to be good. God created it. therefore, the tree was not evil. and most likely, the tree probably was good for food. so eve's plan was for something that was indeed good. 

except for the fact that God had said no. 

there are two points i want to make from this verse. the first is that sometimes, our plan can be for something that is good. i think back to last year when i applied to be on the youth group band staff here at spu. i applied, went through the entire application/interview/audition process. its a worship band. it was something that honored and glorified God. it was good. however, i didn't make it. for a while i was really frustrated because i didn't see why i shouldn't be on that band. i mean, it honored and glorified God. it wasn't contradictory to Him. so how could it be apart from his plan? many times our plans are good. but God's plan is great. while we think we have the best, God has the bestest. when i applied for the worship team, i even had people tell me i should have been on that team and they didn't know why i wasn't. i realized later that i wouldn't/didn't have the time i needed to invest fully in that team and leadership position, and that because i wasn't on that team i had the ability to invest more in my floor. that was a side-effect that i couldn't have possibly seen coming. it was God's great, which was better than my good. so the take away? often our plans can be for something good, something that could be wonderful and beautiful and good. but God's plans are always great and so much more wonderfuller and beautifuller and gooder than ours could ever be. 

the second point i want to make from this verse is that often God's plans are great, and then we get in the way and we compromise them. i have had times in my life where after the fact, i could see how it could have gone if i had only listened to God but because i decided to step in the way, i compromised His plan and only got part of the awesomeness that He had originally planned for me. because we have a hard time trusting in the sovereign God's almighty and perfect plan, we often can miss out on all that He had in store for us. because of this, we need to learn to trust in His plan and forsake our own so that we can experience all that He has in store for us. since it is the God of the universe who holds our lives in His hand, i'm pretty sure we want to see everything that He is going to allow us to see because He is God and He is wonderful and He is almighty. who wouldn't want to experience every good gift that comes from Him?

just because our plan is good doesn't mean that it automatically lines up with His plan. we need to continue to seek His will every minute and constantly be aligning our hearts with His. 

our God is good. our God is wonderful. our God is powerful. and He has a plan that will honor and glorify Him forever, and that will cause us to honor and glorify Him forever. but two plans cannot simultaneously exist, one simply will win over the other. more often than i would like to admit, my own will wins over God's will. this needs to change. i need to submit my will to God's will, and allow Him to work His plan for His glory. 

are you going for good, or great?