Giving God Space To Work Out His Plan

Give God a chance. He will confuse the plans of the Enemy, even when those plans are, humanly speaking, better than yours. When God is fighting for you—and he always is if you have placed your trust in him—you will ultimately win because his will for you is unstoppable. What will look like the end of the road will open up to a new path that the Lord has set before you. That is God’s promise, and he is always faithful to his promise.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Samuel 17:14

Then Absalom and all the men of Israel rejected Ahithophel’s advice for Hushai’s. They said, “Hushai’s advice is better than Ahithophel’s.” For the Lord had determined to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, which really was the better plan, so that he could bring disaster on Absalom!

What an amazing statement: the Lord had determined to defeat David’s enemy. Now that is the kind of condition under which I want to live my life and serve my God. To have God fighting on my behalf, even turning better plans the Enemy might have to defeat me down a dead-end ally so that his plans can prevail—that is what I call undeserved grace. And I will take it.

David was going through the roughest season of life imaginable—and it was his own doing. He had sinned grievously against the Lord: he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, had her husband murdered to cover up her pregnancy, hid his sin for months, and then mismanaged the rest of his family when the consequences of his sin unleashed a tidal wave of rebellion among his children. Now Absalom, his favorite son and heir apparent, had usurped his throne and had peeled off one of David’s most trusted counselors, Ahithophel, to now actively plot against the king. The uprising was so strong that David had fled Jerusalem with his entourage, and at this moment, with Absalom mounting an attack against him, it looked like David was a goner.

But not when the Lord is working on your behalf. Even when the situation is your own doing, the Lord doesn’t abandon his plans for you. Your mistakes might delay his plans or detour them a bit, or a lot, but God has committed to complete that which he has promised to do: “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6) The great hymn writer John Newton put it this way,

We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage.

Let that sink in: God is fully and forever committed to his work in you. And along the way, he knows that he will have to delete your mistakes and redirect your life to get you back on track, probably often. But that is who God is and that is what God does—thankfully. In the 1700’s, Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in his journal,

There is a God in heaven who over-rules all things for the best; and this is the comfort of my soul.

Yes, that is quite comforting. And it is true. That is why you must learn to give God a chance. He is committed to working out his will in your life. Of course, you have a part to play—and your loving obedience greatly helps. And when you blow it, immediate and sincere repentance goes a long way to smooth the road toward your divine destination. Yet even still, as God is inexorably working out his plan for your life, so is Satan. Which means that you will be tempted at times to take things into your own hands to overcome his efforts, or perhaps you will get so overwhelmed that you will want to surrender to the pressure he has put on you.

Don’t! Give God a chance. He will confuse the plans of the Enemy, even when those plans are, humanly speaking, better than yours. When God is fighting for you—and he always is—you will ultimately win because his will for you is unstoppable. What will look like the end of the road at times will open up to a new path that the Lord has set before you. That is God’s promise, and he is always faithful to his promise.

If I haven’t said it clearly enough, let me say it again: Give God a chance. He will fight for you along the way and he will bring his work in you to a glorious completion.