{"id":1086,"date":"2019-10-17T15:30:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T20:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calebstrong.org\/?p=1086"},"modified":"2025-12-18T17:58:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:58:00","slug":"gods-plan-vs-gods-provision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/17\/gods-plan-vs-gods-provision\/","title":{"rendered":"God&#8217;s Plan vs. God&#8217;s Provision?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I have mentioned before, that I had my own issues with God&#8217;s plan for my life. One of the biggest fears I still own, relates to providing for my family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These days, I don&#8217;t need a lot of &#8220;things&#8221;. Now that I have a family, I just want to provide for them. I want to be able to pay our bills, keep a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, and gas in our car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, as noble as that sounds, it can have a LARGELY selfish and prideful nature plugged into it when you try to go about it the wrong way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I tried many selfish and sinful, avenues to make money in the past. <br>Let&#8217;s list a few and explain the ramifications each had on my life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>supporting and maintaining adult websites &#8211; <em>I became addicted to pornography and sexual interactions<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>leveraged (aka. debt) house flipping &#8211; real estate plunged and I lost millions and so did my investors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>digital marketing for online gambling &#8211; congress outlawed online gambling;&nbsp; I personally paid back thousands of dollars to investors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All of those things failed because they break God&#8217;s basic principles for life and business. The book of Proverbs is full of God&#8217;s rules, that even Jesus mentions. (see my article on <a href=\"http:\/\/calebstrong.org\/gods-provision-for-our-needs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">His provision<\/a>). <em><strong>One thing to take note of<\/strong>: God does not tend to bless us (as believers) when we walk in worldly, selfish ways.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>One thing to take note of:<\/strong> God does not tend to bless us when we walk in worldly, selfish ways.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Over a decade ago now, I started over. I recommitted my life to walking in His paths. I stopped abusing the drugs and alcohol that I used to dull the pain of my old-life. Then, the Lord decided it was time for me to start my second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, I attempted to build a new company. I was focused and determined, but I was still self propelled. In the end, I was left looking for a new path once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a while, I tried working for others, but it was difficult to find work during the largest recession in decades. I ended up homeless, sleeping on the couches of friends and family when I could bring myself to seek their help.&nbsp; When I couldn&#8217;t bare the shame, I slept in my car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I finally, broke down and cried out to the Lord. Once again he reminded me that I was still holding my life back from Him. He reminded me that He would not bless me as long as I fought His ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though I had no address, no bank account, and no phone, the Lord found a way. Within a few weeks, the Lord found me work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was happy for a time, but in the politics of a large corporate world, I became restless. Fighting for my own provision, and fearing it&#8217;s loss, I took control and ignored my God and His ways. Thinking &#8220;I could find something better&#8221;, I left the place God planted me. In my struggle to succeed, I turned my back on His blessing and within a few months I was laid off from the new company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought <em>&#8220;I am the problem&#8221;<\/em> and&nbsp;I wasn&#8217;t wrong, but the enemy took that <em><strong>foothold<\/strong> <\/em>and turned it into a <em><strong>stronghold<\/strong><\/em>. Struggling with depression, thoughts of worthlessness, rage and anger issues, I considered turning back to the drugs and alcohol that ruled my old-life. All because I started to believe the LIE that &#8220;<em>I was destined for failure&#8221;<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reality is that God took His hand from me for a short season, and only for correction. Then the Spirit intervened and planted in me a deep knowledge in my heart that was later confirmed in scripture. (<em>Irons sharpens iron; a wise man seeks counsel of others, etc&#8230;<\/em>)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>I needed &#8220;God-honoring&#8221; men in my life and the Spirit made sure I understood that. <\/strong><\/em>My heart was burdened with a need for men who would pray over me, give me wise counsel and call me out on my foolishness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I took my hands off the wheel and I submitted control once again to God&#8217;s provision. In return, men at the church stepped up. I was connected to a core group that helped reshape my life over the next three years&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Patrick Morley&nbsp; had a very good article on Men Mentoring Men on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.maninthemirror.org\/a-look-in-the-mirror\/205-mentoring-younger-men\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Man in the Mirror <\/a>blog.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>There is more to the story, but for the sake of getting to the point; the pattern to notice is simple. <br><strong>God, has a PURPOSE for each of us.<\/strong> <br><strong>Our Heavenly Father God has a PLAN for us to achieve that purpose.<\/strong> <br>And&#8230; When we choose to pay attention and follow HIS WAYS:<br><strong>God PROVIDES to those on the the path to which He GUIDES.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think about that for a while&#8230; Then tell me, <em>Why<\/em> are you <em>still<\/em> trying to take the wheel from Him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These days, I don&#8217;t need a lot of &#8220;things&#8221;. Now that I have a family, I just want to provide for them. I want to be able to pay our bills, keep a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, and gas in our car.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, as noble as that sounds, it can have a LARGELY selfish and prideful nature plugged into it when you try to go about it the wrong way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,16,17],"tags":[20,32,29,23,33,39,11,35,14,15,30,26],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choice","category-philosophy","category-religion","tag-bible","tag-christ","tag-christianity","tag-facebook","tag-fellowship","tag-god","tag-hai","tag-jesus","tag-meta","tag-myspace","tag-religion-and-spirituality","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/man-skilz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}