Planning Ahead

Planning Ahead

Read Jeremiah 39:1–45:5

1. Then all the guerrilla leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, approached
2. Jeremiah the prophet. They said, “Please pray to the Lord your God for us. As you can see, we are only a tiny remnant compared to what we were before.
3. Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go.”
4. “All right,” Jeremiah replied. “I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked, and I will tell you everything he says. I will hide nothing from you.”
5. Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord your God be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever he tells us to do!
6. Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey him, everything will turn out well for us.” Jeremiah 42:1-6

Running errands, going on vacation, working on projects—all of these activities require planning. Planning makes things easier to accomplish. But sometimes even plans aren’t enough to achieve success.

Enter the forward-thinking Johanan, who has some plans. Like any good Israelite, he wants God to bless his plans and asks Jeremiah to pray for him. But something rotten shows itself as soon as God reveals the truth about Johanan’s true motives. As you read, look for the lesson about truly seeking and doing God’s will.

Johanan and his tiny band came to Jeremiah and asked him to pray for God’s approval of their plan (Jeremiah 42:1–43:3). But they didn’t really care what God wanted; they wanted approval of their wicked plans.

This is a common problem—seeking God’s approval of our desires rather than asking him to shape our desires. We should not make plans unless we are willing to have God shape and change them, and it is not good to place conditions on our willingness to accept God’s answer. Whenever we seek God’s blessing, we should say, “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10, emphasis added, emphasis added).

What plans are you making these days? How do they match up with what God wants? Talk to God; yield your goals and your plans to him and he’ll bless your decisions.