“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
Once upon a time there was this young aspiring college student in his senior year of engineering school trying to decide where to go after graduation. He grew up in a large midwestern city of over 2 million people, but had a desire to “see the world” (or at least another part of the country).
So without first visiting the area, he decided to take a job working for an oil and gas company in West Texas. He got an apartment in a city with a population of about 90,000. The actual field office he would work in was 30 miles south in a town of about 3500. So, the aspirations of this aspiring young man took him from a city of 2 million to working daily in a town of 3500. Needless to say, there was culture shock. Sometimes he felt as if he indeed went to another country.
He enjoyed his job, but convinced himself, “I’ll just work here for a couple of years and then transfer to a real city.” Well, two years later, his company was bought out by a larger company and all transfers were on hold.
So, Mr. Aspiration told himself again, “I’ll wait another two years and then transfer.” Well, two years later the oil and gas economy declined and he was glad just to have a job.
So he devised a third “two year plan” that would surely get him back to a “real” city. But wouldn’t you know it, two years later there was a nationwide recession that depressed the job market. Not wanting to be homeless and hungry, he decided to keep his existing job in the “foreign country”.
Fast forward forty years, the young aspiring engineer is now an old retiring engineer. As he looked back on his life, he was able to see how God had blessed, prospered and protected him all those years.
First of all, he met and married his wife of over 30 years after the third “failed plan”. He met some of the nicest people he had ever met who treated him like family. He got the chance to work and have fun with a fantastic group of young engineers, from whom he learned a lot. His first supervisor helped him develop the confidence in his skills and himself which carried over into his 40 year professional career. And the list goes on.
God blocked all the plans of Mr. Aspiration — for his benefit. If Mr. Aspiration had just asked God for guidance and trusted Him, he would have saved himself a lot of stress and unhappy days.
Are you at a point where your best made plans seem to fail? Are you frustrated at your spot in life and can’t seem to get out? Are you too blinded with discouragement to see the blessings God has prepared right in front of you?
God has plans for you that sometimes take decades to come to “completion”, and each year until that “completion” time is a year of preparation. Just think, He may be working with someone whom you may never meet who will play a crucial role in your future.
If we study the lives of Abraham, Joseph and Moses we see multi-year plans involving different people who were influential at different seasons in their lives. As you read and meditate on their lives, ask yourself, “Could God be working in my life the same way?”
Remember these words the next time you are discouraged, disappointed or bewildered about your life:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV
(By the way, if you haven’t guessed, I was Mr. Aspiration.)
100 Days To A Better Life Through Proverbs 
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