More times than I'd like to remember, I've surged ahead with my own plans and agenda and then asked God to bless what I was doing on the back end. Jeremiah 29:11 speaks of a much better way--- For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Notice who has the plans and who they are made for. Notice the promised outcome. The Lord spoke these words through the prophet Jeremiah during a time when his people were in exile in Babylon. In the earlier verses, He urges his people to live where they are and be productive (v. 5-6), to pray for the land where they were in exile (v. 7) and to be aware of false prophets and not be deceived (v. 8-9). Then He promises to deliver his people home after their 70 years of exile has been completed (v. 10).
This passage of Scripture gives me great hope. God knows when I am in a dry season. He knows when I am suffering. He encourages me to keep on living and not let the present circumstances cripple me in fear. He commands me to hold to his truth and not be swayed by the lies of enemy and those who don't know Him. And best of all, He promised to deliver me safely home.
Patrick Morley, President of Man in the Mirror Ministries and a man who I respect greatly, shared these thoughts on how we can actually create our own gospel by surging ahead with our own plans instead of the ones that God has prepared for us before time began:
"When I became a Christian I already had a plan for my life. So when I read the Bible I was, in essence, looking for evidence to support the decisions I had already made. When I read a verse that went in the direction I was going in anyway, I would underline that verse--often memorize it. But when I read a verse that veered off in a direction I didn't want to go, I would figuratively smudge that verse off the page. Soon I was following the God I was underlining in my Bible. I had created a fifth gospel--Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Patrick. In due time God graciously and painfully rerouted me to the true gospel.
Jesus said, "The Scriptures cannot be altered" (John 10:35). Unless and until we accept the timeless authority of the Scriptures, we will never enter into the fullness of the "new creation." To read the Bible with an agenda is to seek the God we want. To surrender to the authority of the Scriptures is to seek the God who is. How many gospels do you have?"
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