Gods Sabbath

T HE P LACE FOR OUR P LANS

379

This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.” Steps to Christ , 70.1. At the outset of each day, if we have learned to hear His voice, we will have received God’s plans for that day. These must be surrendered back to God, to be given up or carried through as His providence shall indicate. The admonition to surrender all plans to Him includes both types of plans—the ones that God makes for us and the ones we make to carry out the work He has planned for us. When this has been done, perfect protection from being de ceived and misled is assured, for, if the plan came from God, He will successfully implement it, but if not, He will lay it aside and the scheme will come to nothing. This is a simple matter for Him, provided the problem is in His hands. There are three possible reasons why it might become neces sary to give up our plans. First reason No matter how close the walk with God, we are never placed beyond the danger of deception. Therefore every plan which ap pears to come from God must be carefully tested, especially if it looks attractive to our human nature which is a notoriously un trustworthy guide. The enemy, knowing what appeals most strongly to us, is an expert at devising schemes calculated to win our acceptance. At the same time, he knows how to clothe the wolf in sheep’s clothing to make the acceptance justifiable, and to conceal, as far as possible, any requirement to violate princi ples. He is so clever at this that on many occasions it will be im possible for us, as mere humans, to detect any apparent unright eousness in his schemes, making it all too easy to accept them as God-sent. Second reason It is wrong to conclude that a plan which God has given to us should never be relinquished. Although God’s plans are perfect,