Clarification on "Does God Really Have a Specific Plan for Your Life?"

I was a backslider for a long time, a backslider with a call on my life so, I think about these things a lot.  I'm so thankful for God's Word because without it, most of the time I wouldn't even believe I'm saved, much less walking in God's will.

The other day, as I was pondering these things, God's plan for me, God's new map of my life, and such.  God gave me an illustration.  Then as I pondered that, He gave me a better one.  Don't laugh; but the first picture God gave me is that time is like a giant cake and we are all M&M's.

Most of us have seen or heard of the illustration used by science to explain the expanding universe.  They say it is like a raisin muffin in the oven.  As the muffin rises, the raisins move away from each other.  Well, I'm not a big fan of raisins, and anyway God gave me a cake.  So, all of us are M&M's in the cake of God's universal plan except for the fact that, unlike those mindless raisins, we have the free-will to move around in the area of the cake in which we find ourselves.  

No matter what we do, we are still in the cake.  We cannot change or exit God's overall plan for the whole cake of His plan and time.  However,  if we find ourselves in a part of the cake absent of candy-coated-chocolaty-deliciousness, we can choose to leave that area absent, we can stand there in solitary sweetness or we can try to get other M&M's to join us there.

Remember, this isn't an illustration of salvation because if it was, not everyone would be an M&M but some would be pebbles or something, waiting for some M&M to come by and tell them that there is much more for them than being a pebble that is discarded after the cake is baked.  Some M&M would have to tell them that God made a way for them to become sweet and chocolaty, too. 

The other illustration God gave me (and I'm aware this isn't original to me nor will it be happily embraced by most) is an ant farm.  The ants are busy going about their lives, most of them unaware that there is a bigger plan.  They are free to move about wherever they want and are content to do so but they are unaware of the bigger picture.

In my post, "Does God Really Have a Specific Plan for Your Life?", I think I may have implied that it doesn't matter what you do, you will end up in God's plan.  While this is true, it is an incomplete picture.  God has a perfect plan and then He has the re-write.  How shall I make my point, you may ask?  I give you Samson (Judges chapters 13-16)

Samson was the last of the judges of Israel before the monarchy was established.  Actually Samuel was the last judge but, Samson was the last one mentioned in the book of Judges and has four whole chapters dedicated to his life.  God had a glorious plan for Samson as a deliverer of His people.  How do we know?  His parents had a theophany (see my post on this phenomenon here).  God came and visited them and told them that He was going to give them a child and gave them special instructions for his upbringing.  He was to be brought up a Nazirite.  

The vow of the Nazirite is explained in Numbers 6:1-21.  It is a vow of consecration or separation to the Lord and involves: letting your hair to grow out, never drinking alcohol from grapes, and never becoming ritually 'unclean' by touching anything dead throughout the duration of the vows.  Numbers says that anyone can make this vow, man or woman, and is for a time stipulated by the person making it.  At the end of the interval, there was a ritual of conclusion that involved offerings and cutting their hair which was also offered to God.

The Bible gives three examples of Nazirites from birth, Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist.  It is just an interesting side note that all three of these men were born to women who had previously been unable to bear children.  In other words, their births were, at least to their mothers, miraculous. 

Anyway, God had these big plans for Samson and gave him supernatural strength to help him defeat the Philistines, the oppressors of Israel.  We don't know exactly what God had planned for Samson, only that it was grand.  I mean, God appeared to his parents!  

His parents did what they were supposed to do.  They never cut his hair.  Every time Samson saw his reflection, he was reminded that he was set apart for God's purpose.  He never drank wine.  Every time he refused, it was a reminder that he was set apart for God's purpose.

Samson, however, had a weakness for Philistine women.  One day he saw this woman and it was love (or lust!) at first sight.  He told his parents to get her for him.  Remember, marriage was a contract and negotiations had to be made and prices had to be paid.  Samson's parents were reluctant because God, over and over, had commanded his people not to marry the 'heathen'.  But, Samson would not be appeased. He had to have her as his wife.  So, arrangements were made, the marriage took place, Samson moved out of his perfect place in God's cake, and God re-wrote his map.  

God would use Samson's marriage to the Philistine woman to strike a blow to His enemies.  The Bible says that Samson's parents didn't know it was an occasion for God to confront the Philistines, but I personally don't think this marriage was God's perfect will.  After all, God Himself had commanded His people not to marry outside of Israel because they would take up the idolatries practiced by the others.

There are so many things that Samson did that were not God's perfect will; but, God continued to use him mightily against the Philistines.  Then Delilah happened.  Samson fell for the wrong Philistine woman.  You can read the story for yourself and figure out whether or not you think she was a plant or an opportunist but the Bible says Samson loved her and she betrayed him for around 25 lbs. of silver.  

Over and over she asked Samson the source of his strength.  Over and over he made up an answer.  Over and over she applied the method he had told her and over and over he broke his bonds.  I don't know why Samson trusted her after all this.  You can draw your own conclusions but after all, he revealed that his strength was in his hair.  While he slept, Delilah cut his hair, bound him and turned him over to the Philistines.  They proceeded to gouge his eyes out and haul him off to Gaza to work a grist mill like a mule.  

One would think that it was all over for Samson.  One would think that there is no way for God to use him because he had thrown away that grand plan God had placed on his life at birth.  One would think that Samson had moved so far out of his corner of Gods cake that there was nothing that could be done.  Not so!  Let's not forget who we're dealing with here.  It's still God's cake and it will come out of the oven just how He wants it no matter what you do in your own little part of it.  

The Philistines were very proud of themselves for their defeat of Samson but they forgot one thing.  They forgot to give him a hair-cut.  One day, they were having a huge festival where they were making sacrifices to their god, Dagon.  They were praising him for delivering Samson into their hands and thought it would be a great idea to bring him up from the prison mill to entertain them.  Samson prayed, "O God! please remember me and strengthen me once more."

So, Samson asked the servant to lead him to the support pillars of the temple, you know, just so he could lean against them.  The servant did and Samson was stationed between these two pillars while the Philistines mocked him and his God.  God restored Samson's strength.  Samson cried out, "Let me die with the Philistines!" and proceeded to push the support pillars of the temple apart causing the temple to fall.  The Bible says that he killed more Philistines in that single act than he had in his entire life.  Samson was still a blind prisoner, but was able to be used by God by his submission to God's will in the end.  
  

So here's the thing.  There is this divine cake and it's going to come out of the oven AWESOME!  God allows you to be a part of His cake.  So, be a good little M&M.  Follow Gods first plan for you life.  Don't do like Samson and I, following our own plan, making God rewrite the map of our part of the cake, over and over again.  And, at the risk of being redundant, how do we know God's plan?  We read His Word!  If you are living by His word, you are living in His will.  And if you are living in His will, mighty things can happen. 

Happy Baking!