Does your life sometimes make no sense? Stuff happens that definitely is not what you had planned.
I remember when my dad died when I was only 32 years old. I actually argued with God about what He was doing in my life. Didn’t He know how this would affect me and my family?
Have you ever needed to have a heart-to-heart talk with God about His decisions for your life? His plan was definitely not your plan.
Take heart – even the Apostle Peter questioned Jesus about God’s plan. In Mark 8, Peter had just confessed that Jesus was the Christ (Mark 8: 29). Peter knew who Jesus was.
But when Jesus began to explain the next steps of God’s plan for Him – rejection, death, and resurrection – Peter felt he needed to have a private talk with Jesus to rebuke Him. The confessor became a counselor. He took Jesus aside and began to set Him straight on what it means to be the Christ. Like Peter, we many times do not accept the negative side of God’s plan.
“And he [Jesus] began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” -Mark 8:31-33
Jesus publicly rebuked Peter, calling Him Satan. Peter was not Satan, but it was Satan that prompted Peter to speak. Earlier, during the temptation of Christ, Satan had offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world if He would just bow in worship to him. Jesus could avoid the cross if He would just drop a knee to Satan. Jesus refused.
And now Satan speaks to Jesus in the voice of a well-meaning friend, Peter. Satan has returned, not as a roaring lion but in the caring love of His closest friend.
Peter had no idea that Satan was there, still less that he had become his very instrument. The words must have come as a shock: Get behind me, Satan! Peter had just recognized Jesus as the Christ, but here he forsook God’s perspective and evaluated the situation from a human one.
From this story, I found five principles that help me understand God’s plan, our world and my own sinful nature…
1. God has a plan that sometimes involves negative experiences. But God’s plan always ends in victory and joy.
2. There is a power of evil in the world that fights God’s plan, led by Satan.
3. We are the battlefield where this fight is fought.
4. We can become an ally to the evil that is in this world when we try to avoid God’s will and plan.
5. We are most vulnerable to be tempted in the victories and strengths of our growth in Christ.
I do not know what struggles God has allowed to be in your life today. But it was the plan of God that Jesus and His disciples experience rejection, betrayal, death, and resurrection victory. If God’s plan for you right now is a season of heartache and difficulty, know that it won’t last long and you will receive the victory soon. There is no crown without a cross.