Life's Daily Challenge Devotional

Only one plan

“According to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it...And see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain," Exodus 25:9,40.

Dear designed one,

God told Moses to build the tabernacle exactly according to the plan that was shown him on the mountain. God also has a very specific plan for each of our lives and for the Body of Christ that

we all collectively form. The specificity of God's design may be intimidating to some people. This thought may make people feel hindered in their individual freedoms. To others it may add the pressures of feeling like if it's not done with perfection, then "heads will roll."

When I take time to reflect on this truth, I receive great peace and rest. God knew me before I was born. He designed a place for me to fit. My striving and struggling hinder, rather than help His ability to place me there. My footsteps are being ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23). The footsteps of other believers are being ordered in a way that complements and enriches the path He has chosen for me. He already knows what I am to look like and to accomplish, and He has laid up every provision necessary for me to succeed.

Obviously, it is possible for us to deviate from the will of God. God’s instructions to Moses make it clear that great care is necessary to stay aligned with the plans He has prepared. We might be deceived, however, into focusing too much on our own ability or inability as we seek to follow His instruction.

I used to tell myself (and God) that my fears were not in His ability lead me, but in my ability to follow. The truth is that fear in your own failure is a lack of belief in God. He can lead you in spite of yourself. He speaks more clearly than your inability to understand. He works more efficiently than your ability to fail. He organizes more wonderfully than your propensities toward making messes. Focusing on your own abilities or inabilities is idolatry. Your focus must be on God's ability to do all that He has promised to do... in you, for you, and through you. He is the God who is able "to keep you from stumbling and present you faultless before the throne of grace," (Jude 24).