A man’s heart plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
Have you ever met someone who is certain that they have wandered so far away from God that they cannot possibly return? What about someone who struggles with believing that God has a plan for their lives because of the things that have happened to them or the choices they have made? Have you struggled to seek His will yourself for one of these reasons?
Sometimes we fall into the trap of believing that we are so far off course that God cannot bring us back. We think there is no hope for us fulfilling His plan for our lives because we have made poor choices that brought catastrophe. Or calamity has overtaken us through no fault of our own and it has left us shattered or unable to see any purpose in what has happened. We think that God cannot possibly bring any good thing out of our lives. They are too messed up.
Circumstances Don’t Have to Alter Faith
Joseph must have wondered the same thing. He dreamed that one day he would be in a position of authority. He would have something important to do that would command the respect of those who offered him none. Becoming the property of nomadic traders certainly wasn’t on his radar. That wasn’t part of the dream. Nor was working as a slave or being thrown into prison. He must have been tempted to think that his dreams meant nothing or that they were not part of God’s plan for his life. Maybe they were just the product of an overactive imagination or sprang up from some selfishness in his heart. But he determined to stay faithful to God no matter where he was, even if his dreams never came to anything. He would honour God even if God’s only plan for his life was prison and slavery.
But Joseph wasn’t so far off-course that God couldn’t get him back. The thing that Joseph’s brothers intended for harm, God turned into good. The hand that sustained Joseph also allowed the trial that befell him. Joseph spent years developing his character under adverse circumstances before he was ready for the victory that God had planned all along. Somehow, God wove the bad experiences into His plans for good.
Failure to Seek His Will is Not the End
It’s a mystery how God’s sovereignty operates alongside our freedom to choose. Somehow in spite of whatever choices we make, God turns them into part of His plan for our lives. He already knows the end from the beginning. He already knows how we will choose at each stage of our lives. And He weaves His plan throughout our choices so that even if we make bad decisions or fail to seek His will, we somehow still end up where He wants us to be.
That’s not a licence to sin or an excuse not to seek His will. His plan is always best and He wants us to seek His will. We will save ourselves a lot of pain and heartache if we get to our destination by the most direct route. But all is not lost if we take detours along the way. Somehow, He will get us to where He wants us because He is ordering our steps.
Sometimes we worry over seeking God’s will. We wonder if we have wandered off-course or if we haven’t prayed enough, sought Him enough, spent enough time with Him or have been influenced by the world too much. But if we have made a genuine effort to seek His will and then moved forward in faith, we don’t need to worry. There is no reason to turn back or wonder if we have missed His perfect plan. He is able to order our steps even when we are willfully insisting on having our own way. So He is certainly able to order them when we are attempting to be faithful. When we seek His will, we give Him full permission to direct our paths.
The key to being in God’s will is to seek it and then aim to be faithful in following Him. There is no need to worry or be stressed about the steps. God will order them so that they are in line with His plans. His word says so.