The Right Theology, But the Wrong Idea

“You all need to know that God is sovereign, and He has a wonderful, perfect plan for your life,” she said to about 30 kids in her children’s message at a Christmas Eve service.

A year ago, I would not have thought much about that. It is, I believe, biblically correct. But I have of late been learning a lot about the importance of the words we use when we are discipling others. Words that communicate truth well in a theological text book, are not necessarily the best words to be used to communicate those same truths to people we are discipling.

For instance, when you hear “God has a wonderful, perfect plan for your life,” I suspect what comes to mind are images that are good, pleasant, and enjoyable. Especially if you are a young kid hearing that (as the kids hearing that children’s message), it is easy to see how that might be understood by them as “nothing bad is ever going to happen to me.”

Don’t misunderstand me. God is sovereign. As Psalms 115:3 (NIV) says, Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him. And He does have a plan for our lives, Psalms 139:16 (NLT), You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

But God’s idea of a “wonderful” and “perfect” life is, is not often really our idea of wonderful and perfect is it?

God’s wonderful and perfect plan for included 40 years in self-imposed exile in the desert, and 40 years of wandering in circles in the wilderness with a million people who continually wanted to give up, give in, and go back to Egypt. More than once the Israelites thought about stoning Moses to death.

His wonderful and perfect plan for David included Saul trying to kill him, hiding in caves, living among the Philistines, and his son Absalom trying to usurp his throne (and that isn’t even counting his own lust, adultery, lying, murder, and cover up with Bathsheba).

His wonderful and perfect plans for His own Son, Jesus included His family running to Egypt while the sons in Bethlehem were slaughtered, being homeless, run out of town, hunted by the leadership, falsely accused, condemned, beaten, and murdered. As Isaiah 53:10 (NIV) says, it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

While that verse continues, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand, we should not rush past the fact that to bring that about He first had to be crushed.

When we talk to people about sovereignty and how we can trust Him and His plans for us, let us be careful that we do not give the impression that life will be free of headaches, heartaches, failures, letdowns, and disappointments. For the truth of the matter is, it is these events that break us down (that we so badly want to avoid) that God uses to build us back up into the people He planned for us to be.