I was reading an article on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill this week and a quote by one of the oil company officials caught my eye.  Referring to the current attempt to cap the leaking well,  one of them said, “We’re believing it will work, but we’re proceeding as if it won’t”.  They were working on Plan B before they even knew if Plan A was going to succeed.  They either didn’t have a whole lot of faith in Plan A, or they wanted a “just in case” Plan B in their back pocket.

I know that catastrophic oil spills warrant Plans A, B, C, D and so on.  And the last news report I read indicates that those contingency plans indeed have been necessary.  But the quote caught my eye because it sounded so counter to what God’s word says about faith.  It made me wonder how many times I have said I believed God, but I’ve proceeded like I really didn’t expect Him to come through.  I wondered how many times I’ve secretly been working on a Plan B behind His back.

A Plan B might sound like a good thing to have, but it’s really just a faith failure in disguise.  God wants us to have faith in His plan for our lives even when it doesn’t make sense, when it isn’t clear, and when it doesn’t appear to be successful by our definition. 

I don’t want to have doubts.  I don’t want to have a Plan B of my own making in my back pocket.  I don’t want to say I believe God and then proceed as if I don’t.  God’s plan is the only plan I need.

 “For I know the plans I have for you” says the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future”.  Jeremiah 29:11