God Has a Plan

I couldn’t believe the words I was hearing. I was asked to come to the pastor’s office for a “brief” conversation and upon arriving I was told that I was no longer needed at the church and my job had been terminated. I was being fired!

Twelve months earlier I had moved my family from the south side of Oklahoma City to the northwest side to take a position as student pastor at a local church there. It had been an amazing year of student ministry full of trials and triumphs. We had seen the ministry grow to over 100 students and were making preparations for a great summer.

Then I was called to the pastor’s office. Thoughts raced through my mind trying to rationalize the situation, trying to discover what I could have done to deserve this and I was drawing an absolute blank. I even asked what I had done to cost me my job. The pastor’s reply was that I had done nothing wrong. He said that they were proud of me and my ministry but it was time to move in a different direction.

I stumbled out of the office trying to search for the words I would use to explain to my wife and children that I had lost my job. I was in a complete daze when I remembered the words that God had spoken to the prophet Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

What could possibly be God’s plan in all this? Fast forward five years from this “event” and I am now pastoring a church on the northwest side of Oklahoma City and God is blessing and growing it at an amazing pace. I became the pastor here in July of 2005 and since that time we have had 65 new members join the fellowship of our church.

Over the past five years God has shown me that not only did He have a plan for my life that it is perfect. After leaving the church in Northwest OKC I realized quickly how much I need God to be involved in my ministry. We like to put matters in our own hands because we can’t stand the feeling of not being in control.

The key to successful Christian living is not us being in control but God being in control and the same is true with ministry. After coming to that conclusion I was called to join the staff at a great church in Miami, OK located in the far northeastern corner of the state. I’m a city guy! I grew up in OKC and had always lived around the OKC metro area. Had I not been in the situation that I was in I never would have been open to moving that far (3 hours) away from “home”.

We lived in Miami for three years and it was there that I felt God calling me away from student ministry to become a pastor. I was fortunate enough to be working with a pastor who understood what I was going through and was willing to mentor me.

Now that I have been back in Oklahoma City for nine months I can look back on that time and see where God did have a plan for that day in June of 2001 and He continues to have a plan for my life now.

Jesus never promised us an easy life. He never said that there wouldn’t be hard times and difficulties in life. In fact, in Matthew 10:16 Jesus says that Christians in the world are like sheep among wolves. All of us will face trouble in life but the difference is whether you have embraced God’s plan for your life and have the faith to live it.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28