Battlefield of the Mind DevotionalSample

A Perfect Plan

What does it mean to think that God has a perfect plan for us? Perhaps it's the word "perfect" that troubles us. We're fallible and make so many mistakes. How could anything be perfect in our lives? We know ourselves too well. Immediately we think of our shortcomings and shake our heads.

That's a trick of Satan! The plan isn't perfect because we're perfect; the plan is perfect because God is perfect. God has a special plan for each of our lives.

Let's think about that plan. In Philippians 1:6, Paul told us that God saved us and started a good work in us. Paul also wrote, in Ephesians 2:10, that we are God's handiwork (or workmanship). The two verses before that tell us that we're saved by God's grace. We have nothing to do with the act of salvation--we haven't earned it or deserved it. We are born into the kingdom of God as a gift.

As we think about God at work in us, we remind ourselves that God is perfection. Nothing we can ever do would be good enough to satisfy God's perfection. Only Jesus, the Perfect One, is good enough. Nothing but our faith in Him makes us acceptable to God.

As soon as we say, "But wait! I'm not perfect! I fail," we have taken our attention off God and allowed Satan to distract us with wrong thinking. Our loving Lord pleads with us to turn our minds and hearts fully over to Him. The more fully we do that, the more completely we live by His good and perfect plan.

Pray: Perfect God, help me in this battle for my mind. Satan constantly reminds me of my imperfections and my weaknesses, but I ask You to remind me of Your perfection, Your love, and Your closeness so that I can always walk in victory. I ask these things through Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the book Battlefield of the Mind Devotional by Joyce Meyer. Copyright © 2005 by Joyce Meyer. Published by FaithWords. All rights reserved.