Knowing God’s Plan

We often wonder how to know God’s plan for our lives. We want to be sure not to mis His direction. We want to do the things He has planned for us (see Ephesians 2:10).

If you’re anything like me, you’ve wondered how to be sure you are following His lead and making the right choices.

I’ve come to see that there’s really nothing to it. The book of Genesis recounts the story of Joseph. You can find the account in Genesis chapters 37 through 46.

Joseph had a dream about sheaves of wheat bowing down to him and the sun and moon bowing down to him. These dreams made his brothers very angry because they interpreted them (rightly) to mean that they would be bowing down to their younger brother and so would their parents.

Consequently, the boys plotted to kill Joseph. They threw him in a pit and when some traveling merchants happened by, they decided to sell Joseph as a slave instead. These merchants took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to a high-ranking official. While there, he was wrongly accused of trying to seduce his master’s wife. This landed him in prison for a few years.

Ultimately, Joseph interpreted a dream for Pharaoh. The dream foretold that there would be seven very productive years followed by seven years of extreme famine. Joseph was made the second-highest ranking official in Egypt so that he could save up grain and other supplies during the good years for use during the bad.

During the famine, Israel sent his sons to Egypt to buy food and the man to whom they had to go was their brother Joseph who they had sold into slavery years before.

In Genesis 45:7 Joseph says, “So God sent me ahead of you to ensure for you a remnant on the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.” (NASB 2020)

Did you catch that? God’s plan for Joseph included him being sold into slavery and spending a few years in prison before God’s ultimate plan to save Israel from the famine came to light.

So, when we want to know what to do to be sure we are following God’s plan for our lives, we really need look no further than the situation in which we find ourselves. Just as Joseph did nothing to control the direction or outcome of his life other than trusting God, so we can rely on God for the outcomes.

We need only do what lies before us. Simply living our lives as they come under the assumption that He is at work and is fully able to ensure His intended results come to fruition.

This is the Sabbath rest for God’s people.
This is the light yoke and easy burden.
This is faith working through Love.