Notes of Faith September 30, 2026
Let God Lead
A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
It is true that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But it is also true that straight lines rarely exist in real life. More often than not, the plans we make involve many twists and turns that we had not planned on encountering. One measure of our trust in God is seen in how we navigate the unexpected changes in our plans.
Jonah had a plan—rather than obey God and head east to Nineveh, his plan was to go west to Tarshish (modern Spain) in order to avoid meeting his enemies face-to-face. But God’s original plan did not change. Instead, God changed Jonah’s plan by casting him into the sea and having him swallowed by a great fish. When faced with the likelihood of dying as fish food, Jonah repented of his disobedience and decided to submit to God’s original plan. Even then, Jonah’s story does not end well. He was not happy with God’s mercy toward Nineveh, and Scripture leaves him in a state of self-pity.
A valuable lesson from Jonah’s life is that God’s plans will not be foiled by human failure or intervention. If God changes your plans, seek His will and follow His lead.
God has no problems, only plans.
Corrie ten Boom
James 4:13-17
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
I have not seen a life that did not experience changes to plans, divergence from a straight line travel to a myriad of movements away from that original straight-line plan. Life is responding to those changes through which God is leading. May we understand the changes and be truly blessed in following God’s plan for our daily walk with Him!
Pastor Dale