“Your eyes saw my embryo, and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, before any one of them had yet happened. God, your plans are incomprehensible to me! Their total number is countless! If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand! If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.”
Psalm 139:16-18 Common English Bible

“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.” Psalm 139:17-18 NKJV

God says the plans and the purposes that he has for you are more than the sand of the earth. There is no way we could ever count every greain of sand. We tend to thing, “God has a plan for me.” Plan-singular. Then we make a wrong choice somewhere along the way and thing, “I missed God’s plan!” But don’t despair, that is another of the enemies lies. God doesn’t have a plan for you, he has plans-plural, and they are limitless! If you have ever stayed at or near a beach you know what sand is like. We went to the Hateras Islands, in North Carolina one summer and I’m telling you-that sand was invasive. Just when you thought you had gotten rid of it all, it was between your teeth, sheets, in your shoes, and even clogging up the sinks. That sand was everywhere and it just kept coming. Sometimes in handfuls, and sometimes just one more grain. Stop and think about that for a minute. Those are like God’s plans for us.

“If God has so many plans for us, why aren’t I seeing them come to pass,” you ask.

There are many things that can hinder, or even stop His plans and purposed in our lives. He’s planned it all out, equipped you with gifts, talents, and His word to fulfill them, so we are clearly the issue. First of all you have to accept Him as your Lord. We call it “getting saved” or “being born again.” We have admitted our sin, have conceded our need for someone else to come in and clean us up, and then surrendered our lives to His perfect will, and those wonderful plans. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11). In salvation we become His children, dearly loved. God says if we are His children, we will do what He says. Which leads us into the second reason that those plans may be hindered. We have to be living in His will, or at least attempting to do that. Salvation is not just a prayer, one that you say once, or even over and over, without a life change. We can’t be “like dogs who return to their own vomit.” (Proverbs 26:11) Salvation is constant choice to surrender to Him, to not give into temptation, and to build a relationship with Him.

Proverbs 26:11 leads us to another reason-sin. We all mess up, but all followers of Christ, we should be quick to ask God to forgive us, and then move on. “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again : but the wicked shall fall into mischief,” Proverbs 24:16 KJV. If a married couple or a family has strife in their home, their prayers can be hindered. It goes to say the same thing can happen in our churches. We need to try and live peaceable amount each other so we don’t hinder God’s plan for our family or the Body of Christ. Matthew 18:19-20, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” We need unity.

Fear keeps us from seeing God’s plans come to pass. I dealt with fear for more years than I would like to remember until I was delivered. Fear paralyzes you. It keep you in confusion and constantly worrying. It drowns out the voice of God. God says that “perfect love casts out fear.” I used to struggle with that, because I bought into the lie that my love wasn’t perfect enough. Then I got the revelation that He was never talking about my love, but His. When we realize how much He loves us, we can have confidence in Him and what He says, that gets rid of fear! We hear Him loud and clear when we begin by hearing Him say how much He loves us!

There are so many things that seemingly creep in that can hinder God’s perfect will in our lives.
So we need to be able to hear His voice clearly, then do what He says. Our world is noisy! TV’s, radios, ipods, ipads, computers, and the list goes on! Sometimes it is hard to hear that “still small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-13). The last week of January our church is “fasting” noise so that we can purposely listen for that voice. Corporately, we always fast and pray together in January for the new year. This year God has laid in on the heart of our Senior Pastor, William Hohman, to lesson the distractions. For some of us that might not be too hard, I love my quiet and the TV, or the radio are hardly ever on. But for some, who have either or both running 24/7 as “background noise” this will be hard. Unfortunately we can’t control our work or our school environment, but we can control our home, or our own rooms. I encourage you to fast with us the last week of January. Shut off and shut out as much noise as you can. Then talk to God. Now here is the clincher, then shut up and listen!

God in His wisdom and perfect love, seeing the end from the beginning, seeing you righteous and accepted, has many plans for you! Not plans to harm, but to bless! So what is stopping you?