We Plan, God Directs Our Path

Paul continues to express his desire to see the Roman church again. Paul believes that his work to minister to the gentiles is not complete, he will go to areas where Jesus has not been preached nor has a Christian church been planted. He has planned out his journey to go to Spain and drop in on the Roman Christian church along the way.

Paul provides his itinerary so that the church may know what his future plans are and be ready to receive Paul on his return. Paul must travel approximately 1000 miles out of the way back to Jerusalem. His trip to Jerusalem is significant as it provides tithes to the poor saints who live there.

Paul makes a very strong statement in verse 27 which he states that if you Gentiles are debtors in receiving from God, then you should also be willing to give material blessings and minister to them in spiritual things. Once Paul is finished in Jerusalem he will continue on his journey to Spain via the route through Rome. Paul views his trip as a true blessing from God and will take every opportunity to make it there.

In this section Paul makes clear his intention to get to back to Rome to continue to preach the gospel by the way of Spain. Paul’s ministry was directed towards the Gentiles and he sees Spain as a large mission field. The bible is unclear if Paul ever made it to Spain but in his writings, Clement of Rome wrote that after Paul taught the whole world and having reached the farthest bounds of the west he would return to the holy place (Clement of Rome, I Corinthians V.vii).

Paul created his itinerary and he planned out his timing but God had a different plan and much different timing. Paul’s status upon arrival was much different than he thought it would be (Acts 24:27; 28:11). God has a way of reminding us to include Him when we are planning. What we perceive to be the perfect plan may not necessarily align with the plans that God has for us. When we follow God we must always be ready to pivot and to seek the Lord’s guidance in every aspect of our planning stages. Paul describes his trip to Rome in (Philippians 1:12-14) as a blessing to further the message of Christ even to the Roman soldiers that were guarding him before his trial.

The key take away is that when we are planning to make simple to life changing decisions such as what is for dinner, to where I will attend college, who should I marry, where do I live and work etc. That we should bring all these decision points to the Lord in prayer. All too often we make hasty decisions based on criteria that excludes the Lord. Some examples of the criteria are based solely on emotion, some are out of distress and some do not go through the “pro’s/con’s” exercise. That is because we do not stop and seek the Lord’s will in our decisions. Paul spent a good amount of time traveling and ministering to the Gentiles while demonstrating his ability to always include God and Jesus in his decisions.

As brothers and sisters in Christ we must do the same. We must put God first in our decision making process. When we seek the Lord in prayer and supplication we will always achieve the best that God has planned for us. We see many instances in the bible where our plans when not aligned with the God’s plan, things can get complicated and in some cases create disastrous results. What comes to mind in 2 Samuel chapter 24 when David numbered the people of Israel against the Lords will to do so. That displeased the Lord which led David to seek the Lord in prayer and ask for forgiveness.

If we put God first in every decision we make, the outcome will be more than we could ever imagine. The desire to stop and wait on the Lord at times is very difficult to achieve. We have become a nation of impatient people. A nation that wants it now and cannot wait for God to guide our path. We see this in the letter to the Romans where Paul wanted to get back to Rome as quickly as possible, but God had a different plan with a different path and different timing. If we learn anything from scripture we should take away this very point. God is in control of all things and He will guide us and protect us through our walk in life when we include and put Him first in our decision making process. We can make all the plans we deem necessary to succeed in life but if those plans exclude God we may get what we want and not what we really need. Satan has a way of distracting us to get us to take our eyes off of God and focus on our circumstance. When we put God first with all our needs, we will always be on the right path to living a God filled life being led by the creator of the universe. How can we lose when God is with us?

I pray that we would always seek the Lord in every decision we would make moving forward. Lord forgive us for the hasty decisions we make, especially the one that exclude you. Lord I pray that You would provide every need and that we will humbly come to You seeking Your wisdom and knowledge for our lives. I pray that through our obedience Your blessings would fall upon us and that we would give You Glory for all things in and through our lives. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray this Amen! Amen!