1 Corinthians 16:5–6 (ESV) — 5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia,
for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will
stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey,
wherever I go.
NOTE: There is a
principle here that has been repeated throughout the letter -- God has given us
minds to use. We see it here. Paul makes plans. He is not completely sure of
everything that will happens but he has a plan. He also allows God to intervene
and change those plans (seen in other passages of scripture), but there is
nothing wrong with planning. I think that planning becomes evil (or sin) when
it turns to scheming. The words plan and scheme are not that much different. My
point here is that when a scheme is secret, crafty, or devious, then it becomes
wrong. We don't need to scheme to achieve our desires. We need to plan openly,
and act openly and in integrity. And one last difference between godly planning
and evil scheming is that we give our plans to God. We bathe them in prayer
asking for his will, and we tell God that we are willing to change plans
according to his will. There is no single path, in terms of details, that we
must follow. God allows for a lot of variation. But there is a path, and there
is a will of God. The path and his will is revealed in the scriptures for all.
The variations are subject to our mind and the leading of the Spirit where
applicable.
PRAYER: God lead me.
Help me to plan and not to scheme. Help me to see when I am scheming. I confess
the sin of scheming to you. I don't want to step beyond what I should do. Help
me to see the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment