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God's "Plan" for You

One of the things I hear most often in the Christian community is about “God’s plan”. Stuff like…

This went well because it was in God’s plan.
I’m not doing this or that because I’m waiting for God to reveal his plan for my life.
My parent getting cancer and dying must fit into God’s plan.

We act as if God has laid out a single track for our lives that we are supposed to follow. That, somehow, he will divinely inspire us to follow this single track, and we will live happily ever after. The end.

But how right is that thinking?

I bought into that mentality for a long time. I prayed for God to reveal his plan to me, as if there was a single purpose God had in mind for my life. Specifically, I spent a long time dwelling on this idea of working as a career in the church. I struggled with wondering if my choice of a different career was a deviation from “God’s plan”.

Well, what does the Bible have to say about this?

Here are some verses people like to point toward when thinking about God’s plan:

  • Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
  • Proverbs 16:9 – “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
  • Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in him.”


Admittedly, these verses do talk about planning. Fair enough. But here’s the reality: God may know those plans, but we don’t. We can pray and pray and pray all we want, but it’s not like there’s a booming voice that comes from heaven.

We are still created with free will. Even if God does have a plan for us, we can choose to deviate it. Heck, if God had a plan for somebody like Hitler, he went way out in the other direction.

We have a choice to make here, then. We can do what I formerly did and spend our days toiling over what “God’s plan” is for our lives. Or we could follow the very comforting advice found in this verse…

Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”

When I was a student at Lincoln Christian University, the student cabinet took this verse and summarized it very well this way:

Whatever you do. All your heart. For the Lord.


I don’t know about you, but I am done toiling over what God has “planned” for me. I do genuinely believe that if God wants me somewhere in life, he will put the right people on my path. My hope for you is that you don’t toil like I have in the past. Instead, do what you do best. With all your heart. For the Lord.
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