I struggle when it comes to God’s Plan for my life.  Don’t get me wrong.  I want God’s plan for my life more than anything on this earth.  I want to be and do what God wants me to be and do, but sometimes I get in the way.  Let me rephrase that.  It seems that I get in the way a lot and mess up God’s plan for my life rather than being patient and waiting on God’s direction for what he wants me to do.  It reminds me of the struggles that Paul had when he communicated in Romans that the wishing to do oftentimes was overshadowed by the deeds he did that were bad.  He had a  struggle to experience God’s plan for his life and so do I.  I’m not saying that I am equal with Paul.  I’m not.  I’m just saying that throughout history there has been a struggle to do God’s will versus our own will.

There was a man in the old testament who was known as a man after God’s own heart.  His name was David who in the early years of life began to seek the Lord.  He became King of Israel and all the kings that followed his reign were compared to him and his heart for God.  What struck my fancy was King David deciding to bring up the ark of God back to Jerusalem.  The ark of God was representing the place where God dwelt among the people. It was placed in the holy of holies in the temple and the priests would come before the ark once a year to sacrifice animals and spread the blood over the top of the ark (mercy seat) to atone for the sins of all the people.  It had been taken from its’ place and David wanted to bring it back to its’ rightful place in the temple.

The problem surfaced when David decided to take it back to Jerusalem on a cart pulled by oxen, rather than to take it up by polls being carried by the Levites, or God’s workers in the temple.  We pick up the story from there.  “David and all Israel went to Baalah of Judah (Kiriath Jearim) to bring up from there the ark of God the Lord, who is enthroned between the cherubim—the ark that is called by the Name.. . .When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.” ‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭13:6, 9-10‬ ‭NIV

David had a plan, but it wasn’t God’s plan.  Right intentions, but wrong actions.  His intent was to bring back the ark to Jerusalem and place it in the temple.  The intentions were good.  The actions were the problem.  “It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.” ‭‭1 Chronicles‬ ‭15:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We can have the best intentions, but if our actions are driven by our plan versus God’s plan, the outcome will fail as it did in David’s case.  If you read on in I Chronicles, you will find that when David followed God’s plan, he experienced success.  To truly find God’s plan for our lives, it takes patience and seeking.  Patience to wait for God’s direction.  Seeking the scriptures to find out what His plan is for our lives.  God wants His plan to be revealed in and thru us, but we need to be patient seekers for His plan to surface.

On this journey, God wants to make His plan known to all of His children.  Qualities of patience and seeking are essential to change our plans into His plans.