The Best Laid Plans

Planning is one of my favorite things. I have loved journals and calendars and to-do lists and file folders and Office Depot and pens and sticky notes and… well, all that stuff… for my entire life!

However, I also have the “talent” of adding too many things to my planning list. I enjoy new ideas, and all those new ideas get added to a master list. Quite frankly, I would need to live to be 120 years old (and maybe older!) to get all of the things done that are on my list.

My Creator is also a planner, and since I’m made in His image, I know I get that characteristic from Him. It is a crazy, warm, and delicious thought to know that I have been in His plans from the beginning of time. Yes, He’s been thinking about me that long!

I can prove it from Scripture. And He’s been thinking about you, too. Want to see?

The Hebrew word translated into English as “plans” is mahashabah (Strong’s #4284). It is a long word, but you can pronounce it, I’m sure. Every syllable ends in an ah sound. Ma-ha-sha-bah.

The King James Version translates this word as thought, device, purpose, work, imagination, cunning, invention, or means. It comes from a root word that means “designing a pattern or plan for an action or device.” Quite simply, it is the same as our word for “invention.” (Source)

And in Scripture, we read that YHVH has “inventions” for us that span all generations. Let’s read some of those verses and insert the word “inventions” each time the Hebrew word mahashabah is used:

The counsel of YHVH stands forever, the [inventions] of His heart to all generations (Psalm 33:11).

Many, YHVH my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your [inventions] toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered (Psalm 40:5).

“For I know the [inventions] that I think toward you,” says YHVH, “[inventions] of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, or have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).

We have all heard the story of how Thomas Edison labored to invent the light bulb.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” (Thomas Edison)

Yet every plan of YHVH works.

There are many [inventions] in a man’s heart, nevertheless YHVH’s counsel—that will stand (Proverbs 19:21).

In fact, the Hebrew word for counsel in that verse is the same as the word for tree, a “woody perennial plant with a supporting stem or trunk and multiple branches,” and it reminds us of “the upright and firmness of the tree.” (Source)

Commit (roll) your works to YHVH, and your [inventions] will be established (Proverbs 16:3).

So recently I was praying about all the plans I have. I have many “inventions,” but which ones are really from Him? As I’ve said before (here and here), our work is never the source of our income; God is the source of our income! I work to serve Him, not to pay the bills or get rich. Those are His responsibility, amen?

A man’s heart [invents] his way, but YHVH directs his steps (Proverbs 16:9).

There are many [inventions] in a man’s heart, nevertheless YHVH’s counsel—that will stand (Proverbs 19:21).

So in answer to my prayer, He has been reminding me, first, that even when I work hard to make plans, my abilities, my thoughts, and even my very breath are from Him. He is my source.

A man’s steps are of the Lord; how then can a man understand his own way? (Proverbs 20:24).

Secondly, last night He reminded me how much He delights in hearing my plans.

It’s a lot like how my grown-up sons enjoy listening to me talk. Each day, I wake up early in the morning and talk the ears off my boys before they leave for work, while we make coffee and bowls of oatmeal together, and they seem to enjoy the way I talk to them. It’s a good thing, because I wake up with my brain turned on, and if I couldn’t talk to them, my yellow lab and my Siamese cat would be the only ones around at 6 AM to hear my ramblings.

So my Father loves to hear my “inventions.” They give him joy!

Check out this verse I saw last night, and take out the words added by the English translators, which I’ve put into brackets for you:

The thoughts of the wicked [are] an abomination to YHVH: but [the words] of the pure [are] pleasant words (Proverbs 15:26, KJV).

Read it like this:

The inventions of the wicked make YHVH sick to his stomach, but those of the pure are pleasant words to Him.

Wow!

When the pure in heart make plans and tell Him all about them, it’s a pleasant sound in His ears!

Thirdly, plans showed up again in this morning’s Bible reading time:

The [inventions] of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty (Proverbs 21:5).

The word for diligent comes from a Hebrew word meaning sharp, and it reminds us of a farmer who is careful to always be sure his knives and sickles are sharp. A dull knife is not an efficient way to harvest one’s crops!

And in the same way, when we are diligent to sharpen our tools, to be efficient and wise in our daily work, even to be “sharp” in the way we plan things out and then carefully execute those plans, it leads to plenty.

He is answering specifically now! Be diligent in my inventions! Stick with it! Don’t change directions hastily, to bring in a fast buck. Stay the course! Do what He’s been telling me all year long! Let Him worry about the bills.

There is the old story of a sea captain sent out on a mission by Queen Victoria. When he asked who would care for his estate while he was overseas, she replied, “You take care of my business, and I’ll take care of yours.”

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:25-33).

Your life was in the Father’s plan all along, and He has gifted you with talents and abilities that are unique to only you. Maybe He has given you a home, a husband, children or grandchildren, a love for certain topics, and a passion for His Word.

You are an inventor, created in the likeness of the most amazing Inventor of all time.

Can you hear His call?

“Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?”
“Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:8-9).

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture in this blog post taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.