Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / May 14 - Plans in God’s Hands
Transcript
- 0:02Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
- 0:06rooted in scripture and relevant for.
- 0:07Today, May 14th, plans in God's hands.
- 0:13Have you ever had a plan fall apart completely?
- 0:16Maybe you worked really hard for something, a grade, A
- 0:19relationship, an opportunity, and it just didn't come together
- 0:23the way you hoped. Or maybe you had everything
- 0:26mapped out and life took a sudden turn that you never saw
- 0:29coming. That feeling of plans unraveling
- 0:33is one of the most disorienting things we experience because we
- 0:37like to feel and control. We like to know what comes next.
- 0:41Proverbs chapter 16 verse one speaks directly into that
- 0:45tension. The plans of the heart belong to
- 0:47man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
- 0:50You make your plans, and that's not wrong.
- 0:54Planning, dreaming, working towards something, all of that
- 0:57is good. But the ultimate outcome?
- 0:59The final word that belongs to God.
- 1:03And honestly, when you really think about it, that's not a
- 1:06threatening idea. It's actually one of the most
- 1:08comforting truths in Scripture because it means the one holding
- 1:12the final word is not random chance, not other people's
- 1:16opinions, not your worst fears. It's God.
- 1:20Paul writes in Second Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3
- 1:23and 4. Blessed be the God and Father of
- 1:26our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all
- 1:30comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may
- 1:35be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the
- 1:38comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
- 1:42Did you catch the ripple effect in that verse?
- 1:45God comforts you, and then that comfort doesn't just stay with
- 1:49you, it flows through you to someone else who's hurting.
- 1:53Your difficult season becomes a source of empathy and strength
- 1:56that you eventually offer to someone else in theirs that
- 1:59reframes everything. Your disappointment isn't
- 2:02wasted. Your struggle isn't just
- 2:05something to survive. It's actually equipping you with
- 2:09something that no classroom or textbook can teach.
- 2:12A lived experience of God's faithfulness that you can pass
- 2:15on to someone who needs it. And then Paul gets incredibly
- 2:19honest in verse 8. For we were so utterly burdened
- 2:23beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
- 2:26This is the Apostle Paul, someone whose faith we admire,
- 2:30whose letters we still read thousands of years later.
- 2:34And he? Admits to feeling completely
- 2:35overwhelmed, beyond strength to the point of despair.
- 2:40If that's not permission to be real about your own hard
- 2:43moments, I don't know what is. You are allowed to say this is
- 2:46too much for me right now. That's not weakness, that's
- 2:50honesty. And honesty is exactly where God
- 2:54can meet you. The beautiful thing is that
- 2:56Paul's despair didn't have the final word in his story, and
- 2:59neither will yours. When we release our plans, not
- 3:04just intellectually but actually surrender them with open hands,
- 3:08we make room for God to work in ways we couldn't engineer on our
- 3:11own. So wherever you are today,
- 3:14whether your plans are going great or they just fell apart,
- 3:17bring them to God. All of it.
- 3:19The dreams, the disappointments, the question marks.
- 3:23He holds it all with perfect wisdom and perfect love, and He
- 3:26can use every piece of it, including the broken ones.
- 3:29Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for
- 3:33the reminder that my plans are held in Your hands when things
- 3:37go differently than I hoped. Help me to trust that You are
- 3:39still working. Teach me to find comfort in your
- 3:43presence and to stay open to what you are doing even when I
- 3:46can't see it clearly. And God use what I've been
- 3:50through, the hard parts, the confusing parts, to help me
- 3:54encourage someone else who is walking through something
- 3:56similar. I trust you with all of it in
- 4:00Jesus name, Amen. What if the battles hitting your
- 4:03family are not random and your home can become a place where
- 4:06darkness loses every right to stay?
- 4:09The Secured Home is a powerful six book prayer series for
- 4:12believers who want to guard their households with biblical
- 4:15authority, peace, and confidence in Jesus Christ.
- 4:18Book 1. Guarded Thresholds fortifies
- 4:21every doorway, room, and entry point with prayerful protection.
- 4:26Book 2. Cleansed Rooms helps reclaim
- 4:29spaces marked by fear, unrest, and spiritual defilement.
- 4:33Book 3, Closed Breaches, exposes hidden access points and severs
- 4:38every agreement with darkness. Book 4, Broken Assignments,
- 4:43confronts oppression, torment, and attacks against your family.
- 4:47Book 5, Consecrated Walls, dedicates every space and rhythm
- 4:52of the home to God. Book 6, Abiding Peace, shows how
- 4:56to maintain spiritual order, rest, and holy presence every
- 4:59day. Order now on Amazon or visit
- 5:02prayerscripts.org. Now I invite you to spend time
- 5:07with God in today's three-year Bible reading plan.
- 5:11Proverbs chapter 16 verse one world English Bible The plans of
- 5:16the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from
- 5:19Yahweh. Second Corinthians chapters one
- 5:22to two world English Bible. Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus
- 5:27through the will of God, and Timothy our brother to the
- 5:30Assembly of God, which is at Corinth with all the Saints who
- 5:34are in the whole of Achea. Grace to you and peace from God
- 5:38our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 5:41Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
- 5:44Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in
- 5:48all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are
- 5:52in any affliction through the comfort with which we ourselves
- 5:56are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ
- 6:00abound to us, Even so our comfort also abounds through
- 6:03Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is
- 6:06for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for
- 6:10your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the
- 6:14same sufferings which we also suffer.
- 6:17Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that since you are
- 6:21partakers of the sufferings, so you are also of the comfort, for
- 6:25we don't desire to have you uninformed brothers, concerning
- 6:29our affliction, which happened to us in Asia, that we were
- 6:32weighed down exceedingly beyond our power, so much that we
- 6:36despaired even of life. Yes, we ourselves have had the
- 6:40sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not
- 6:43trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead, who
- 6:46delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver, on whom
- 6:51we have said our hope that He will also still deliver us.
- 6:54You also helping together on our behalf by your supplication,
- 6:58that for the gift given to us by means of Many thanks, may be
- 7:02given by many persons on your behalf for our boasting.
- 7:06Is this the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and
- 7:10sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God,
- 7:15we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly
- 7:18towards you. For we write no other things to
- 7:21you than what you read or even acknowledge, and I hope you will
- 7:25acknowledge to the end, as also you acknowledged us in part,
- 7:28that we are your boasting, even as you also are ours in the day
- 7:33of our Lord Jesus. In this confidence I was
- 7:37determined to come first to you, that you might have a second
- 7:40benefit, and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from
- 7:44Macedonia to come to you, and to be sent forward by you on my
- 7:48journey to Judea. When I therefore was thus
- 7:51determined, did I show fickleness, or the things that I
- 7:55purpose? Do I purpose according to the
- 7:57flesh, that with me there should be the yes, yes, and the no?
- 8:01No, But as God is faithful, our word toward you is not yes and
- 8:06no. For the Son of God, Jesus
- 8:08Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Sylvanus and
- 8:12Timothy, was not yes and no, but in Him is yes.
- 8:17For however many are the promises of God, in him is the
- 8:20yes. Therefore also through him is
- 8:22the Amen to the glory of God through us.
- 8:26Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is
- 8:29God who also sealed us and gave us the down payment of the
- 8:33Spirit in our hearts. But I call God for a witness to
- 8:37my soul that I didn't come to Corinth to spare you.
- 8:40We don't control your faith, but our fellow workers with you for
- 8:43your joy. For you stand firm in faith.
- 8:47But I determined this for myself, that I would not come to
- 8:50you again in sorrow. For if I make you grieve, then
- 8:53who will make me glad but he who is made to grieve by me?
- 8:57And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came I
- 9:01wouldn't have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice,
- 9:04having confidence in you all, that my joy would be shared by
- 9:07all of you. For out of much affliction and
- 9:10anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, not that you
- 9:14should be made to grieve, but that you might know the love
- 9:17that I have so abundantly for you.
- 9:20But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow, not to me,
- 9:23but in part, that I not press too heavily to you.
- 9:26All this punishment which was inflicted by the many is
- 9:30sufficient for such a 1. So that, On the contrary, you
- 9:34should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means
- 9:38such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.
- 9:42Therefore I beg you to confirm your love toward Him.
- 9:45For to this end I also wrote that I might know the proof of
- 9:48you, whether you are obedient in all things.
- 9:52Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything.
- 9:56For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that
- 9:59one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, that no
- 10:02advantage may be gained over us by Satan, for we are not
- 10:05ignorant of his schemes. Now when I came to Troas for the
- 10:09good news of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the
- 10:12Lord, I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn't find
- 10:16Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into
- 10:20Macedonia. Now thanks be to God, who always
- 10:25leads us in triumph in Christ and reveals through US the sweet
- 10:28aroma of His knowledge in every place.
- 10:31For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are
- 10:35saved, and in those who perish, to the 1A stench from death to
- 10:38death to the other a sweet aroma from life to life, who is
- 10:43sufficient for these things. For we are not as so many
- 10:46peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God.
- 10:50In the sight of God we speak in Christ.
- 10:54Thanks for joining us on Bible Chat, where Scripture meets
- 10:58everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
- 11:01you, share it with a friend and be sure to follow the podcast so
- 11:05you won't miss the next conversation.
- 11:07Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope, and
- 11:10walking daily with. Jesus.