Stick to the PlanSample

Trust the Plan

“Commit your works to the Lord, And your plans will be established.
The Lord has made everything for its own purpose…”(Proverbs 16:3-4)

Many of the greatest ideas ever conceived would have never happened if the creator had only listened to the critics. A great example of this is Orville Redenbacher. His popcorn is famous now, but back in the 1950s, his dreams were almost crushed. He had developed a new hybrid strain of popcorn with a higher moisture content than regular popcorn…which resulted in fluffier kernels and fewer “old maids” per batch.

But popcorn companies refused to buy it, claiming the public wanted “cheap” popcorn, not “good” popcorn. Redenbacher disagreed and began selling to the public directly. Today his is the world’s best-selling popcorn.

Other innovations had their own problems with critics.

·The light bulb was dubbed a "conspicuous failure."

·The telephone had “too many shortcomings to be a useful communication device.”

·The automobile - The New York Times in 1902 called it “impractical.”

·Of the television “people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”

…just to name a few

And then some inventions never made it. We don’t hear about those, of course.

This reminds me of the story of Nehemiah. He and many other Jews were in captivity in a foreign land. Only a remnant remained in Jerusalem. Nehemiah got word that the city walls of this sacred city were in great disrepair and he felt God was calling him to go and rebuild it. The king of Susa, the Persian capital, allowed Nehemiah to return and supervise the rebuilding of the city wall. Though he had the blessings of the foreign king, he got resistance from critics in Jerusalem who mocked him and the Jews for their determination. They threatened and ridiculed the workers, but with God’s help, they finished the wall in record time.

What is something that you are so determined to do for the Lord, that you’re willing to throw yourself totally into? Is God calling you to do something that seems impossible? Will you believe the critics or the One who called you according to His purpose?

These famous words of God through the prophet Jeremiah to the Israelites have become a watchword for many of us today. Jeremiah 29: 11 “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”