Suzie Brock considers the importance of following God and His path for our lives.

Suzie Brock

In 1786 poet Robert Burns penned these famous words, 'The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft a-gley (often go awry)' in his poem To A Mouse.

How true these words are. No matter how much we order our lives and plan our paths, ultimately we are not in control. Life does tend to 'go awry' on us, to say the very least.

That is why I think the scripture that so many of us cling to and pass around is Jeremiah 29:11, '"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."' I love how it reads in the Amplified Bible, '"For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you", says the Lord, "thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome."'

'Hope in your final outcome', how comforting are those words? To think that there is someone whose thoughts and soul intent is to bless us; one who has already mapped out a 'plan' and then actually has the power to bring that plan about.

In my life I have made it my daily practice to pray the Lord's Prayer, because it is wholly perfect, written by the expert on all things to do with God, the one and only person who would truly know how to approach God and what to ask for, Jesus:

'In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.' (Matthew 6:9-13)

Your kingdom come God...I ask you and give you permission to let it be done in my life, that blueprint plan that you have created for me; that plan that is for good and not for evil, with a future and a hope. Bring that plan down into my life Lord.

This is the key, surrender. Surrender your life to Him; lay down your grandiose plans, plans that may easily 'go awry' and give way to Him and His safe and sure plan for your life; the plan that is good.

Right away the thought is, 'How do I know what His plan is, in order to follow it?' That was and is the whole purpose of the word of God, the Bible.

It's that daily walking out; the true and sure following on solid ground; the simplest choices of obedience. Choosing love over hate, kindness over cruelty, and patience over anger, giving and not just taking. It's the daily walk with Him. These simple choices for God's way over your own way all constitutes following Jesus. If you follow then you're not leading; you are on God's path and not your own.

Although following means you can't always see the path ahead, but only the one in front of you, if you trust the One in front, then you have nothing to fear. The guarantee of the Bible is that His plans are to prosper you, to give you a future and a hope and to keep you from evil and calamity.

It's interesting to me how when my focus is on Him, all else begins to come into focus. Jesus said it Himself in Matthew 6:33, 'Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.'

This is what is great about trusting God's plans for our life; He promises that those plans will exceed anything we could hope or imagine for our own lives.

Ephesians 3:20-21 says, 'Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.'

That is amazing. In my life I can honestly say that the times that I have chosen His way over mine, it has yielded paths and plans beyond my hopes and imaginations. I have not been disappointed in following Jesus and neither will you be!