My Way or the Highway

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. Proverbs 21:30

Who can straighten what God has made crooked? Ecclesiastes 7:23

What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. Revelation 3:7

When God sets a plan in motion there is no one on earth or heaven or hell that will be able to stop it. God will succeed every time. God has every detail worked out. No one can go against God and win. Yet, there are those who try to thwart God’s plans and his works everyday. Many today hate the idea that there is a God who is supreme, who is in control of everything, and in control of their lives.

I’ve had students tell me, “Nobody is going to tell me what to do!” This seems to be the attitude of a lot of people in our society. They are determined that they are going to live as they please, and not even God is going to stop them. Solomon said, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:2, and in Proverbs 6:9 he said, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

I think that there are even some Christians who never consider God in anything they do because they are afraid that his plan for them will be different from what their plans are. Doing things God’s way may often interfere with what we want to do. Doing things God’s way requires us to believe and accept what his Word says. People who are determined to do life their way scoff at the truths of the Bible. Doing only that which we want to do will not end well for us.

I preached a funeral years ago for a man who had completely left God out of his life. I had never met him. I was asked by a member of his family who was a member of my church to do the funeral. This fellow didn’t have a church nor had he known a preacher. He was an alcoholic. He had been married several times and had many children. He had not been a good dad, and had not treated his wives very well. I was told that he had also been in trouble with the law during his life. And he had never, as far as anyone knew, accepted Jesus into his life. Unfortunately, I found it most appropriate that the song that this man wanted played at his funeral was Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “My Way”. I Did “IT” My Way! He did exactly that and so do many people in our world today. My way never works, but God’s way will always, ultimately, bring us success, joy and peace.