The Plans of a Man.

(Proverbs 16:9) “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

It is that time of the year again, the countdown to 2010 has begun and many are planning their year-end break. I am also in the throes of venturing off into the sunset as I head south east into unvisited terrain, undetected to me at least. I have almost prepared my KTM 690 for our adventure, the saddlebags, long range tanks and my cameras all hazard box is in place. If it was not for the hole in my radiator I would be preparing to leave this morning. Hopefully, Lord willing I will get that seen to today so that I can then be on my way. Here is a classic example on how we should view daily living; look at our text, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” I could of been on my way today but I am not going to be able to leave now as I encountered an unexpected problem. We must always remember that we belong to the Lord and that He directs our steps. Lord willing I will do such and such! When we say we will do this and that, do we not speak brashly? We think we have everything under control, but examine your life and how it pans out, has it not gone against your bold words at times. I love the way the saints of old used to speak as if it was daily dialect, they would say, “Lord willing” almost with every sentence. Plan by all means but remember we need to tackle only one day at a time, we need to deal with our daily challenges, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. The words to a gospel song come to mind, “One day at a time sweet Jesus is all I ask of you.”

Holiday and rest is a vital part of our existence, it has been instituted by God and therefore sanctioned by Him. It is good to rest; (Genesis 2:2) “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.” The fourth commandment instructs us, (Exodus 20:8) “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” And how were they to do that? It tells us later on in the chapter; “but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.”

I personally feel that we should keep the principle of the Sabbath alive to our daily living. Why? Well there is a greater principle than just the keeping the law. The law is a teacher to prove to us that we need a Saviour; we are unable to keep the law because of sin and our fallen state as sinners. But the rest that God shows us, in resting on the Sabbath, speaks about our hope and ultimately our eternal rest as believers. So, when we remember the Sabbath and rest one day out of the week, it should remind us of our rest that will finally be ours in the New Jerusalem, thus igniting our hope to encourage us to lay down our lives for one another. It will set fire to our hope and drive us to find grace so that we may present our bodies a living sacrifice. So then rest is good, but where we often make our mistake is how we chose to rest. We often as believers rest in the wrong places and expose ourselves to unrighteousness as we think it is just a holiday and we need to recharge, so it doesn’t matter if we drop our guard a little. It matters! That is exactly the time the devil and his warriors are most active. We must remember to put on the armour of God even in our rest. Although God has sanctioned rest, we must in our respite be vigilant, how are we to do that you may ask? I believe we must resolve to set aside a time, preferably the morning to devote our thoughts to prayer and a quite time in God’s word. We should easily be able to do this as we now have a new routine outside of our normal work schedule. This must be a time predetermine otherwise we may never get to it. We must also “consider the lilies”, we can and must enjoy our rest and God’s creation, and this in turn will get us to marvel at our great Creators awesome power and majesty as He spoke the creation into subsistence. Rest means exactly that, so find rest in all that is good, enjoy your break, but always remember true rest will only come from the one who has the ability to give rest, Jehovah, the only true living God. If we remember Him in our rest, surely He will remember to give us rest!

Signing off

Tyrone

Ps I have posted a new website/blog for my “Ktm soul searching adventure”. That should get underway, Lord willing by tomorrow. I will endeavour to keep the post updated but obviously as I may be out of range, I will, when possible post to that blog.

http://tyronektm690.blogspot.com.