How Do I Come to God’s Plan?

A long time high school friend of mine, a brother in Christ, messaged me:

“Chan, can you help strengthening my obedience to HIS will so I can be freely coming into HIS plan?”

It is a very powerful question. It is about the most powerful tool God has given us in our spiritual journey, our freewill. It can be either our greatest asset or our biggest liability.

Let’s say I want to give you a million dollar under one condition. You need to be here in 3 days. You live in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is half a globe away from where I live. Will you be here to claim my promise?

I would.

I would take a first-class flight in gratitude to receive what has been promised to me.

When it comes to God’s promises, it certainly worths more than a million dollar:

“For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart” – Jer 29:11-13

God, the creator of the Universe who is All in all and He is willing to give Himself to us? What more can a person ask for?

“I will take you as my own people, and you shall have me as your God. You will know that I, the LORD, am your God…” – Ex 6:7

And if that’s not enough, He gave His only begotten son to die on the Cross. God gave Himself up as an expiation offering for our transgression so we may have the fullness of eternal Life.

So my dear brother, the only thing I can do is to proclaim this most glorious mystery of God giving Himself up for you. You need to be the one who makes the choice to obey Him.

Our modern society has a very strong tendency against obedience. It is always seen as a weakness. Submission is a symbol of vulnerability. It is slavery. I become arrogant because I do not want to confess one’s sovereignty over me, including God’s.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

God asks us, yes ask not force, to obey His will because He knows that is the only path that leads to prosperity. He gives us the choice. He even points to the path we should be on; the choice we should choose. But at the end, it has to be us who make the choice.

“I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live” – Deut 30:19.

All good and perfect things can only come from Perfection Himself. Outside of His path, there is only destruction. Without God we cannot do anything. Yes, it takes an utmost humbleness to confess that. Happy are the humble ones, for they shall see God!

“Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness-- only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil. Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers” Isa 5-7

So my dear brother, don’t stand in the cold outside. Your Father in Heaven has prepared a feast for you inside the House. He is even standing outside and stretching out His hand asking you to come in. But it has to be you who grab that Hand and answer His invitation to come in.

“All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David” – Isa 55:1-3.

Glory to the Most Holy Trinity,
Bro Chan