Recently, Gene and I planned lunch at a local fast-food restaurant. It is one that we have been to many times and we knew the way to get there. However, as we turned into the street where the place was, we found the way blocked. We tried to go around a different way but found that blocked also. We decided to go around the block, only to be prevented from turning in there, also. We finally reached our destination after going a long way around.
Proverbs 16:9 says: “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his stepsâ€. As we look back over our life; we see many turn-arounds, detours, and blocked avenues. Our journey would be much easier if we always consulted God and then followed the route He has planned for us.
Sometimes, God lets us choose to go our way. Often, it is His plan to discipline us or to teach us a lesson. There are some things we have to learn the hard way.  How often we have tried to do something for our children that would make an easier, smoother path for them. We choose to let them make a mistake so that they learn from the experience. Unfortunately, we often only learn the right thing to do by doing the wrong thing first.
It is comforting to know that no matter how rough things get or how much we mess up; God never leaves us alone. Everything that happens in our life must first come through the hands of God. He uses troubles and difficulties to strengthen our faith and sometimes to turn us back to Him and His Word.
James 4:13-15: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or thatâ€.
There is a saying, “Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.  We only have todayâ€. It is good to make plans for the future. But, we need to always put those plans in God’s Hands and make sure that we have sought His will.
One of my very favorite songs is entitled: I DON’T KNOW ABOUT TOMORROW.  Here is the first verse and the chorus:
I don’t know about tomorrow;
I just live from day to day.Â
I don’t borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to grey.
    Many things about tomorrow
    I don’t seem to understand
    But I know who holds tomorrow
    And I know who holds my hand.