God’s Plan Prevails by Lisa Burkhardt Worley, D.Min.
It never fails. Whenever there is a significant “God project” to accomplish, such as giving a message at an event or organizing a women’s conference, something tries to throw me off track—a roadblock. I don’t always pinpoint the source right away, but then I realize the enemy of my soul wants to take me down, so I will be discouraged. That is when I rebuke the attack and ask for the LORD’s strength to overcome any setback—emotionally or physically.
God’s plan always prevails.
In the book of Ezra, the Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple after seventy years of Babylonian captivity. However, in Ezra 4, the people of the land began discouraging those who had returned and made them afraid to build. They bribed advisors to thwart their plans and wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes of Persia that if the city was rebuilt and its walls completed, the Jews would not pay any more tribute, taxes, or duty, and the royal revenue would suffer. They also stated that Persia would no longer have any possession in the Trans-Euphrates region. So, the building of the Temple was halted.
However, God’s plan always prevails.
Rebuilding was the LORD’s initiative. Prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged the people and took a leap of faith by working on the Temple themselves. Eventually, those who made the long trek back to Jerusalem wrote a letter to King Darius, king of the Achaemenid Empire, petitioning him to allow them to complete the work. They encouraged Darius to search the royal archives to confirm that King Cyrus issued a decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.
God’s plan prevailed.
What happened was a miracle. King Darius found the original decree from Cyrus in the royal archives and endorsed the building project. He provided for their daily needs, and later, during the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, the LORD also moved Artaxerxes’ heart to help the rebuilding Jews. He donated silver, wheat, wine, oil, and salt without limit, and the Temple was completed (Ezra 6:15).
When God’s plan prevails and he provides like he did in this case, all praise and honor should go to Him. The priest, Ezra, gave all the glory to God for the turn of events.
Blessed be ADONAI, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the heart of the king to beautify the House of ADONAI in Jerusalem in this way and who has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors and all the king’s mighty princes. I gained strength, as the hand of ADONAI my God was upon me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.(Ezra 7:27-28, TLV).
God’s plan always prevails. We need to trust Him even when we experience delays, and when He comes through with a solution, we need to praise Him for the results.
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