Who Fills Your Daybook?

Who Fills Your Daybook?

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)

I. People Like Planning for Themselves

A. The Tower of Babel and the disastrous confusion which ensued from building it illustrate the common theme of human self-centeredness. “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4)

B. People commonly assume both the present and the future are in their own hands. “Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.” (Psalm 49:11-13)

C. The pathetic Absalom is a prime example of the dilemma. “Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place.” (2 Samuel 18:18)

D. God does not leave the world in the perpetual grip of sinners; where there is death there is also hope of redemption, resurrection, and restoration. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” (Isaiah 40:7-8)

II. God Generates the Master Plan

A. God specifically repudiates the social safety net of civil power; on Judgment Day the government will not be much help. “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” (Psalm 118:9) “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” (Psalm 146:3)

B. No plan counts for much till God approves it; the City of God has a righteous master plan. “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:19-21)

C. Only what is done in God’s plan can last; the morally and theologically neutral are only ephemeral. “There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.” (Proverbs 21:30)

D. How can people who may not even understand themselves understand what should be done with life? “Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24) “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23)

III. The Master Plan Works

A. God enjoys working with people who want what He intends. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.” (Psalm 37:23)

B. God takes all the contingencies into consideration and works with the entire picture in His present. “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Isaiah 46:10)

C. The clay should never delude itself into attempting to be the potter. “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” (Isaiah 64:8) “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6)

D. Relax, God is in control and He knows what is best; avoid telling God what to do. “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:34)