Please RSVP

Do you remember planning that big party? The guest list just keeps growing and growing. So you send out all the invitations and spend the next few weeks or months waiting and waiting for all those you invited to respond. It feels like a critical juncture of the party planning process. Without knowing how many people are coming, how can you ever make sure there’s enough food? For some, we feel like we’re just constantly in planning mode. Fitting schedules together, trying to keep it all afloat while waiting for those around us to respond to the plans or help out to make the plan happen. But what happens when we take that same mentality and apply it to our faith journey? We just keep on planning and planning the days and weeks ahead. Trying to map out our lives. Waiting for God to accept the RSVP of our plans. And to our detriment, we start to hold those plans so tightly that they become the only way forward for us.

However, if we were to seek some wisdom for Scripture, there’s another way to go about it. Solomon, who was given wisdom beyond measure as a young king, wrote down some of that wisdom for us to read within the book of Proverbs. Solomon once wrote commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established (Proverbs 16:3 ESV). Often we hear that and apply it to our belief that if I work hard in the name of the Lord, He will bless what I’m doing. Solomon did that and eventually found himself off course in his reign over Israel. It can be the same for us. The word “commit” in Hebrew means “to roll away,” to let go of all we think we must carry and do. To roll toward God all of our heart’s desires, leaving them at the feet of Jesus. What a beautiful picture of trust and surrender - to open our heart and hands, releasing the grip we’ve tightly held around the things we long for and maybe even idolize. Had Solomon surrendered his desires and plans to God, had he trusted God with his whole heart, he likely would've seen that on the other side of obedience is abundance. This is God’s desire for us: to commit our life and plans to Him while trusting His leading and guidance (Trusting God's Will Over Our Way, Alexandra Hoover).

We can’t see what’s coming up around the next corner. But God can. He sees every twist and turn and every bump in the road. So instead of saying God, please RSVP to the plans that I’ve made, commit your work to the Lord. Let go of all the things that you’re carrying this week that you can’t control. God has a better plan for it than we could ever think or imagine. Trust His leading. Trust His guidance. Let Him establish the way forward by holding your plans loosely in your hands to let God lead the way.