God’s Plans – Being a Pilgrim

“As soon as I have delivered this money and completed this good deed of theirs, I will come to see you on my way to Spain. And I am sure that when I come, Christ will richly bless our time together.”
Romans 15:28-29 NLT

These two verses today paint a picture of a reliable man, entrusted with a large amount of money, and refusing to waver from the task before. We get the impression that he is comfortable within himself, and satisfied that he is doing what God wants him to do. His plans, as he wrote in these verses, simplify what was an enormous problem in those days – getting from A to B. The transport links were long, tedious, and tenuous. Anyone carrying a large amount of money was at risk from thieves en route, and Paul was no stranger to shipwrecks and other hazards as he went about God’s business. But he had three goals – take the gift to Jerusalem, get to Spain and spend some time with the Christians in Rome. Through God’s grace, he managed the first, failed (as far as we know) in the second and succeeded in the third though in a way not quite as he planned it.

God had different plans for Paul, and they turned out to be far more effective than Paul’s. His incarceration both before he got to Rome, and after he finally got there as a prisoner, enabled him to reach many more people with the Gospel. Paul’s journey to Rome was fraught with danger and in Acts 28 we read how a shipwreck found him on Malta, where Paul healed many sick people. A potential disaster ended up with God being able to touch people on an island away from the more civilised parts of the Eastern Mediterranean region. And we read about how Paul was placed under house arrest in Rome, and was freely able to fellowship with the Roman believers. We read in Acts 28:30-31, “For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him”. Amazing! Paul’s aim was to get to Rome to have a time of rich blessings with the Roman Christians. God’s plan was to see the Gospel preached by the greatest evangelist and theologian of that time, and right in the very heart of the Roman Empire.

We pilgrims make plans. Proverbs 16:3 reads, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans”. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take”. Our plans sometimes don’t turn out quite as we expect. God uses what we have and what we do to reach others with His grace and love. Like Jonah, sometimes we don’t really want to go God’s way, preferring a more comfortable or less problematic life. But God has a way of using His people to reach the lost and the Holy Spirit will gently but firmly nudge us in the right direction. And if disobedience to God’s ways prevails, God will find someone else who is willing to fulfil His plans. God’s plan for the people on this planet will never be frustrated. This generation will be touched for Him as we shine like beacons in the dark places of this sad world.

Are we shining for God? Many years ago, in my primary Sunday School years, we sang a chorus that went like this:

Keep me shining, Lord, Keep me shining, Lord,
In all I say and do;
That the world may see Christ lives in me
And learn to love Him too.

A simple song, but so profound, with lyrics that have stayed with me all my life. But it sums up where we should start in allowing God to fulfil His plans through us. As Christ lives within us, the world will never miss seeing our God-beacon.

Dear Father God. We echo the song and pray that You keep us shining for You, illuminating the world around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“But now I have finished my work in these regions, and after all these long years of waiting, I am eager to visit you. I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey. But before I come, I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there.”
Romans 15:23-25 NLT

Paul moves on to talk about his future. He is making plans. He feels he has come to the end of his work, the extent of which we can discover in Romans 15:19b, “ … In this way, I have fully presented the Good News of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum”. Apparently, Illyricum was a region in North East Italy. So Paul is now looking further east, towards Spain.

There is no record of Paul getting to Spain but, as events turned out, his journey to Jerusalem was followed by a series of events that resulted in him being incarcerated in a Roman jail. The plans he was making didn’t turn our quite as he wanted, or expected. But we read in Acts 20:16, “Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus, for he didn’t want to spend any more time in the province of Asia. He was hurrying to get to Jerusalem, if possible, in time for the Festival of Pentecost”. In Acts 16:22-23 we read, “And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead”. And as Paul journeys South he takes every opportunity to touch base with all his old friends in churches he had established beforehand. In one of the meetings a prophetic scene unfolded, describing what would await him there. (Acts 21:10-12). But Paul knew what was ahead of him and he was obedient to the Holy Spirit in making the journey.

What plans are we pilgrims making? And what sort of plans are they? Paul was totally in tune with the Holy Spirit and God’s plans for his life and ministry. We see how the Spirit directed Paul in the next part of his missionary journey when we read Acts 16:6, “Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time”. So how do we make plans and carry them out? Sometimes making plans, ambitious or otherwise, is not possible, through circumstances, or because of health issues. But in the main we pilgrims have opportunities which we can develop. Our choices in life also determine the plans we can make. The subjects we study, or our attendance record at school, can determine the life-choices we have available to us when we reach adulthood. But one thing we are sure of, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants the very best for us. The much quoted verse from 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”. Yes, this is quoted here out of context, but the God-principle applies across all situations and all lives. We can be reassured that God knows what He has in mind for us, and it will be all good, but to find out what that is demands a response to Him that is as living and relevant as Paul’s relationship with God was. To hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit needs prayer and carefully-tuned spiritual ears.

So we pilgrims make sure we stay close to God and particularly when there are plans to be made. The lives ahead of us have a potential that is both exciting and productive. We won’t all achieve big things, like Paul, or a modern day evangelist such as Billy Graham or Reinhardt Bonnke. Mostly, God’s plans for us involve our families and communities, our witness shining like beacons with the love and grace of God.

Dear God. Thank You that You have planned out our lives for us. Please help us to be obedient to what You want us to do, and help us to keep in step with Your timing, so that we can avoid running ahead of ourselves. In Jesus’ name. Amen.