An unscripted God …

It wasn’t that long ago someone told me I’m too spontaneous.

They don’t know me very well.

I’m a planner.

I can assess, analyze, plan to the most minute detail, and be diligent about executing a plan. All of that can be good. But here’s what I’ve also learned from living life and observing human behavior, as well as studying the Bible …

… there are times when God just wants us to take an unscripted step of faith forward and let Him reveal His own plans to us. That is part of living by faith.

We can get so wrapped up in the dreaming, and planning, and scheming, and surmizing that life becomes all about what we’ve sketched out on paper and nothing about the One who holds our lives in His hands. So He often breaks into our lives to implant unscripted moments, unplanned circumstances, where we’re forced to talk to Him in a different way that breaks the mold of our monotonous prayers and, at least for the moment, makes all those plans impractical.

Our plans are usually a script in pursuit of the “American dream,” something that too many American Christians aren’t yet willing to admit often moves us away from God rather than closer to Him. So God intervenes with some changes of His own that challenge us to again walk by faith rather than by sight, especially with eyes full of the unimportant, unnecessary, and unholy.

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” – Proverbs 16:9.

We can harmonize our plans with God’s will by never planning without first praying. But even then, sometimes God just puts something off-script into our lives so that we have to be spontaneous, and that will quickly reveal the reality and health of our faith.

It’s this kind of life Jesus was talking about in Luke 9:23 when Jesus says anyone wanting to be His disciple must deny themselves (which would include putting all those plans in submission to Him), take up their cross every day (pay the price the world will put on you for living out your faith), and follow Him along a largely unscripted path, walking by faith and not by sight.

Planning can be good, especially when it focuses on obeying and executing the will of God, to the glory of God. Is that what your plans are like? How do you respond when, in mid-step, God breaks your stride of executing your latest plan for yourself?

Scotty