Please find below Brandon's notes from the Mid-service comments this past Sunday. Think through these comments and read the scriptures we have been drawn to. Meditate on the word and examine your heart and pray for us to come together as one body under the authority of Scripture.

At different times of the year we find ourselves considering plans for the future. For some it’s at the start of the new year. For many it may be at the end of summer. Regardless of timing, there is a Proverb that I think is helpful for us all to remember in our approach to any new season in life.

In fact, this is important to apply to any plans we have as a church also.

Proverbs 16:9 says:  The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

Young people and adults as well, what plans are you making for the future?

As we consider those plans, we should ask ourselves, are we putting our confidence in our plans or in God, who ultimately directs our lives.

One Christian writer tells the story of a friend of hers who had plans from an early age of becoming a medical missionary. In fact, she wanted to be a doctor who would take the gospel and medical care to people overseas.

However, as a teenager she developed chronic health problems that resulted in hospitalization several times of year. Her physical trials included bacterial meningitis, being comatose, and hospital stays for months on end. Yet, with joy she would later say that her desire for the mission field was indeed realized. However, it was not as a doctor in foreign hospitals, but as a patient right where God had placed her.

What a helpful perspective.

This same chapter of Proverbs 16:3 also says: Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.

Think about what you’re seeking to accomplish with your life. Are those works committed to fulfilling your own purposes or the Lord’s?
Like the young woman mentioned, if we’re committed to the Lord’s purposes we can rejoice in God’s plans for us even when they don’t fit our long-held expectations.

Prayer,
Father, thank you for the confidence that your Word teaches us to have in you. Please guard us against trusting in our plans. Help us to remember that we don’t know what life will be like tomorrow, so we are to make plans without presuming upon Your will.
Also, please help us to rejoice in Your plans for us, despite the circumstances that You allow in our lives. Ultimately, help us to seek to glorify Jesus Christ in all that we purpose to do. In Jesus’ Name.