While God is always in control and will always accomplish his will (Ephesians 1:11), God allows us to make choices, even bad choices that lead to us missing out on good that he wanted to give us (Galatians 6:7-9).
So here are 5 things God wants you to do so you don’t alter his good plan for you.
1. Guard Your Heart from Being Deceived
As we will see in the points ahead, our actions are a huge factor in whether or not we enjoy God’s good plan for us or if we miss it. So we need to remember what the Bible says about how to have good actions. The world starts with the outer actions and works inward. The Bible, however, states we must start with our hearts and work outwards (Proverbs 4:23). Notice what Deuteronomy 11:13-17 teaches us:
And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.”
When Israel left Egypt and went to Canaan, God warned them that their prosperity there would be directly linked to their obedience. We should not equate this promise to our own lives in the exact same way, but spiritually this historical promise to Israel is an example of God’s spiritual promise to us all.
If we don’t guard our hearts and we allow them to be deceived, we will miss out on the good that God could have given us (Galatians 6:7, Proverbs 4:23). So how can we avoid allowing our hearts to be deceived?
2. Saturate Your Life with the Word of God
After God warns Israel to guard their hearts so he can bless them, he then instructs them to be people of The Book. In Deuteronomy 11:18-24, it states:
You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours.
To be blessed, you must follow God. But without the word of God, you won’t know where God is going. Therefore, we must be people of The Book.
3. Stay Away from Idols
We were made to worship. If we are not worshiping God, we will always be worshiping something else. Whatever we worship is where we go to for our help. If you are going to a false god for help, such as money, sex, or even people’s opinions, that false god will bring curses into our lives instead of blessings. God alone has the power to bless us with good. As Deuteronomy 11:26-28 explains:
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.”
4. Don’t Let Devoted Things Stick to Your Hands
God gives us gifts that we might use these gifts to love others, to love him, and to bring him glory (1 Peter 4:8-11). When we use the gifts God has given us in selfish ways, whether it be our time, talents, or treasures, these gifts spoil in our hands. But when we use them for good, they bring blessings into our lives. As Deuteronomy 13:17 states:
None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers . . . .”
5. Love God
If you have been a Christian for a while, you’ve probably heard Romans 8:28. But this verse is not a promise for all people. It is a promise only “for those who love God.” It reads, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
All things do not work together for good if you don’t love God. If you want to receive God’s good plan for you, you have to love him.
