We Need to Be Careful About Being Too Set in Those Plans
We all deal with doubt. Sometimes it’s doubt in ourselves. Sometimes it’s doubt in others. Or maybe its doubt in God.
This is understandable. We’ve all been sure about something only to be disappointed. This leads to doubt.
In Pastor Lee’s message this week, he pointed out John the Baptist’s doubt in Jesus being who He said He was. In Matthew 11:2-11, while in prison, John heard about the things Jesus was doing. He sent his followers to Jesus to ask Him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”
This was John, Jesus’ cousin. The same John that “lept inside his mother womb” when Mary entered the room pregnant with Jesus. Even John had doubts.
The Scripture goes on to confirm that Jesus is who He says He is.
People expected Jesus to be some world leader who would come in and take over. They were expecting one thing and God’s plan was different.
The key to overcoming doubt, is to not give up when things don’t go as we planned. This is hard. We think we have everything all figured out. Surprise!
When we limit ourselves to our humanness, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment. God’s plans are big and we need to align our plans with His.
Our plans may not be God’s plans.
We’re sure that if we just keep on pushing, we’ll achieve what we want. This is only going to happen if it is also God’s plan. We need to persist but be sure to check to see if this is what God’s plans are. If we’ve done this, then…
We need to persist without exception.
“Great leaders – great achievers – are rarely realistic by other people’s standards. Somehow, these successful people, often considered strange, pick their way through life ignoring or not hearing negative expectations and emotions. Consequently, they accomplish one great thing after another, never having heard that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing!”
Andy Andrews, The Traveler’s Gift
God’s timetable is not our timetable.
We tend to want things and we want them now. This is another part of thinking we know better than God. There is a balance between knowing when to push forward and when it’s not time yet. If we can find that balance, we will live a less stressed life.
This past weekend I saw the movie Father Stu, which is based on the true story of a boxer, Stuart Long, who became a Catholic priest. Stuart had a difficult life growing up and after giving up boxing he went to California to pursue an acting career.
While working in a grocery store, he meets a woman named Carmen. He falls for her and falls for her hard. To the point that he joins the church as one of her requirements to date. His plan is to win her at all costs and it begins to work.
After Stu lands an acting role on an infomercial, he faces discouragement and goes to a bar one night where a mysterious man advises him not to drive home. Stu ignores the advice and drives drunk on a motorcycle, crashing into a car he’s thrown off the motorcycle and then run over by another car.
Severely injured, he drifts in and out of consciousness and has a vision of the Virgin Mary, who tells him that he cannot die in vain. This leads Stu to “change his plans” and to become a priest.
This story is a great example of how God’s plans can be different than ours.
Align your plans with God’s earlier rather than later. It reduces the chance for doubt.
It’s easy to let the negative outweigh the positive. We need to be intentional about looking at the positive. When Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on the island, he made a list of the negatives and positives of his situation. Making this list allowed him to see that things weren’t as bad as they first appeared.
If Not, Maybe the Problem Lies in Your Expectation
Maybe we need to alter our expectations, but not our faith. In 
Look at the negative, comedic way New Year’s resolutions are viewed. This is a good example of how the lack of intentionality is misleading. When we get caught up in the rhetoric we will just float through life without a plan. If we don’t bother to dig down and build our lives on a solid foundation, we will be blown in whatever direction the wind blows us.
It’s also important to remember that if we always set our goals small, we will never grow. We need to be growing and learning all the time. 
There is a limit to how much a single individual can do. We can only run back and forth keeping the plates spinning for so long before they start falling and breaking. This means there is a maximum number of people that I can provide my services to by myself.