First in a New Series o f Intimate Talks with Young People About Their Problems
By W illiam W . Orr, D.D.
God Plans Other Things God is a God of plans. You don’t have to look much further than the end of your nose to see that the world, and what we know about the universe as well, are filled to the brim with evidences of God’s design (Psa. 24:1, 2; 19:1). Everywhere you look you see the marks of God’s planning, the exercise of His will. Consider the beneficence o f the seasons. We know, of course, that the earth is tilted 23%° on its axis, but what remarkable results come from this tilt. Instead of having the monotony o f every day just the same and all parts o f the world exactly alike as far as temperature is concerned, we have the delightful and exhilarating variation of spring and summer, autumn and winter (Gen. 8:22). Or consider how God planned the days and the nights (Gen. 1:5). You see, there is co-ordination in this planning fo r man’s body needs a certain amount of rest, and during the hours of nigbt there is restoration o f strength and recuperation of ability. So, in order that man should have this needed rest, God divided the day from the night. During the daytime there is the brilliance of the sun in the sky which sheds abundant light the world around fo r work and activity. But at night time this light is removed, and in its place there is the soft and soothing illumination of the moon which is conducive to rest and sleep (Psa. 74:16). Don’t you see clearly that God plans everything (Psa. 104:1-35) ? Noti,ce further the beautiful harmony of the earth’s at mosphere and man’s lungs. Everybody knows that our at mosphere is composed of 80 per cent nitrogen, an inert gas. The other 20 per cent is oxygen, a very necessary and highly volatile gas. But this combination is exactly right for our lungs. Were we to have more oxygen as a steady diet, we would be too active and soon burn out, and our lives, instead of being lived their normal span, would be swiftly terminated. Or were we to have less oxygen, we would drag around in a half-dead state day by day with insufficient energy to perform our daily tasks. It would truly be doubly funny if our atmosphere were of two parts nitrogen and one part oxygen, for that is what the dentist uses as “ laughing gas.” Or it would be tragic if our atmosphere were balanced with half nitrogen and half oxygen for this would be nitric oxide and would swiftly choke us. On the other hand, how carefully the lungs of man are con structed to transfer the life-giving oxygen from air to blood stream (Gen. 2 :7 ). You don’t have to possess a microscope or a laboratory full of queer looking bottles to see God’s planning ability. Everything God does is planned and He cares fo r all the details. Nothing is forgotten.
Suppose God Had A Plan for Our Lives? W HAT an immeasurably superior plan it would be. How complete in every detail. How devoid of errors and blunders. It would be perfect. It would be the plan o f all plans. A demonstration of the infinite wisdom of God’s mind. God’s plan would be better because He fully understands us. For it was God who in the beginning made man and breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). Man is the product of God’s creative hand. He knows our abilities and He knows our limitations (Psa. 103:14). More than that, God knows about life and its difficulties, and the bearing these hardships have on accomplishments. God’s plan would be better because He sees things in their true focus. God’s throne is at the center of all time. He fully knows the end from the beginning. We rather dimly see the present. God sees all—past, present, future. Nor are there any modifying facts of which He is unaware. If ability to purpose and to plan is based upon proper knowledge and wisdom, then God alone is able to plan for us . . . if He would. God’s plan would be better, too, because of His power to ac complish. God’s universe is so tremendously vast it literally staggers the imagination (Isa. 37:16). Our world seems large and it is; but compared to the giant worlds of the sky, the earth is a mere speck in the universe. There, the billions and billions o f star systems revolve in their orbits at the command of God. He is greater, more powerful, mightier than all the things which He has created. All obey His will. All follow His plan. God’s plan would be better because of His sympathetic ap proach. One might conceive of a wise, powerful God who scorned His creatures. But not our God. He loves us (John 3:16). He wants the very best for our lives (Eph. 1:9, 10). He unselfishly desires not His own advantage, but our advantage. Deep in His heart He wants us to be successful . . . successful in truest sense, successful in the light of eternity. Suppose God did have a plan for our lives? No, there isn’t any supposition about it. God does have a plan, His plan (Prov. 3:5, 6). And this plan is not a better plan . . . it is the BEST plan. Don’t you desire to know about it ?
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