God's Big Plan

Do you believe that God has a plan for your life? What if I told you that from the beginning of time God knew the plan He had for you and He knew the exact moment that plan would be put into action? Well, it is true! He even knew that you would be reading this post before I even wrote it. I have always found it cool that we are living in the plan of God. He has the plan but we put it in action. We are the vessels in which the hands of God move.

In order to better understand how the plan of God works in our lives, I wanted to look at an example that He gives us in the Bible, so let’s take a look at our friend Moses. Many remember him as the great man who stood up against Pharaoh to save the people of God but what we commonly overlook is his path that lead him there. Moses was born in Egypt to a Hebrew slave woman. During that time the Pharaoh had set a law that all male Hebrew babies were to be killed because the Pharaoh was threatened by the Hebrews’ growing population in Egypt. In order to save Moses’ life his mother built a waterproof basket and placed him in it as she sent him down the river to a better life. Along the riverbank is where he was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter. She adopted him and raised him as royalty. He was educated as such and received training in leadership, which would come in handy for the plan God had for him. Moses stayed in the kingdom for 40 years until one day he could take it no longer. He saw the way the Egyptians treated the Hebrews and it angered him. On this day he watched as an Egyptian taskmaster beat one of the Hebrew men and he couldn’t take it any longer. Moses killed the taskmaster and buried him quietly in hopes that no one would find out but when they did he had no other choice but to flee Egypt and never look back. Moses has no plans to ever return to Egypt and settled in the desert, got married, and began tending his father in laws flocks. Moses was happy with his life but this was not where God’s plan for Moses would keep him. One day as Moses was out in the field tending to the flock he saw a bush on fire that was not burning up but remained lit and burning. As he went to investigate the voice of God spoke to him and told him of the journey he would soon embark on.

When God came to Moses in a burning bush, Moses did all he could to convince God that he was not the right person for this job. Exodus 3:11, “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ ” Moses did not feel like he was good enough, he did not think he was the right person for this job. He tried to explain himself out of his destiny by giving God examples of why he was not a good fit for this job. He told him that he was not a good enough speaker and no one would listen to him. Moses plead with God to send another to do this job but God knew the plans he had for Moses and knew there was no one else who could do the things that God had planned for him.

After much hesitation, Moses finally agreed to go to Egypt with his brother Aaron at his side for support. When they arrived in Egypt the two men went to the Hebrew elders and told them of the plan that God had given them and ask for their support. Then they went to Pharaoh and asked for him to let God’s people go. Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he refused to let the people go even after Moses performed the miracle and changed his staff into a snake and then back into a staff. Because the Pharaoh refused to let the people go God sent ten plagues upon the land to change Pharaoh’s mind but each one just made him angrier. Finally, after the tenth plague where God struck down the firstborn of all who did not mark their door with the blood of the lamb, Pharaoh let God’s people go. As the people fled Egypt Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his soldiers after them. Fortunately for the Hebrews, God was on their side and He parted the Red Sea so they could walk across on dry land but the Egyptian soldiers were not so lucky and were swept away by the water.

I would love to tell you after all of that God’s people lived happily ever after in the promised land, in the land of milk and honey. Unfortunately, that is not true. In reality, God’s people wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and most of them didn’t live long enough to step foot into the holy land, including Moses himself. The journey to the promised land was long and difficult. It was filled with times in which the people loved and obeyed God and times in which they turned from Him and worshiped cursed His name. In the end, God's people did in fact make it to the promised land because Moses trusting in God's plan for him.

There is so much we often overlook in Moses’ story but when we take a closer look we can learn a lot from it. For the point of this post, I want to focus on God’s hand in the process of setting Moses and us on the path in which He has designed for us. As we know, every one of us has a purpose in this life, a plan that God has for us to further the kingdom of God. God gives us certain skills and passions that help us along our path. In the example of Moses, he was chosen to lead God’s people out of slavery and into the promised land. From the outside, it is hard to see why God would choose a man like Moses to lead His people after all Moses murderer a man and fled from Egypt only 40 years previously. Needless to say, Moses did not look like the ideal candidate but God knew better and knew what the future held for Moses. If God can use a man like that He can definitely use us.

Let us take a look at a few lessons we can learn from the story of Moses;

• God can redeem us no matter what we have done in our past. God sent His own son as the perfect sacrifice to cover not only Moses’ sins in advance but also our own sins in today’s world. All we must do is ask for that forgiveness and work toward being the person God created us to be tomorrow.

• Moses tried to talk God out of sending him to save the people of God. So often we do the same, we think that we know better than God and we try to tell Him why we should or should not do the things He is asking of us. Spoiler alert, we are not smarter than God and His plan is always better than our own. We use excuses like we are too young, too old, not smart enough, don’t have the necessary skills, etc. what we forget is that God can use anyone and He will give us everything we need to complete the task. There are no limitations when it comes to the power of God.

• Moses had to overcome countless obstacles to find success but God provided a way through all of them. It is a common misconception that God’s plan is 100% smooth all of the time. Well, that is just not true, and if we believe that to be true we allow ourselves to get sidetracked when things start going south. We start to believe that we must have done something wrong since it is not going smoothly. In God’s plan, there are countless bumps and issues that will arise, that doesn’t mean that we have made a wrong turn. The best thing to do when we hit that rough patch is to lean into God and let Him lead us to the other side just as the people of God had to do when He parted the Red Sea and let them walk across on dry land.

• God’s plan is not normally lead us directly to the end goal. We often have to wander in our own wilderness before we can reach the promised land and sometimes we are not the person that leads the group to the promised land in the end. Our purpose may be to set the groundwork and lead up to a point then let someone else take over.

• Moses did not want to lead the people out of Egypt by himself so he ask for help. God allowed Aaron, Moses’ brother to go with him. It is important to know that we are never alone on our journey. God provides others with similar passions and purposes for us to lean on and even when it seems there is no one else with us God himself walks with us in the Holy Spirit.

• God heard the prayers of the Hebrews that we suffering in Egypt and sent Moses to save them. This reminds us that God always hears our prayers and will send us the help we need when we need it even if it doesn’t look like what we thought it would.

If you are having trouble finding the plan that God has for you just take a look at the thing you are most passionate about and allow that to guide you to your path. Everyone’s path looks differently because God has given each of us specific skills to help us along the way. In Moses’ case, he felt strongly about how the Egyptians were treating his people and God used that to lead Moses to the plan He had for him.