In my travels speaking around the world, I have noticed a surprising number of believers in Yeshua (Jesus) who demonstrate both great faith and great fear. Most know that fear is a spiritual, emotional and physical result of lack of faith in an area of our lives. Yet, it is prevalent throughout the body of Messiah, regardless of denomination, or if one lives within Messianic Judaism, or Christianity.
I believe that we can find the explanation for our fear in the mistaken belief that G-D has more than one plan. In other words, many believe that our choices and actions cause G-D to change from Plan A to Plan B and when we mess up Plan B, He moves on to Plan C. This faulty understanding comes from our failure to understand the Bible and G-D’s supremacy.
When our Creator spoke the world into existence and formed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, giving them free will, He was not surprised when they sinned. He did not form a plan to redeem mankind from their sin as a startled response. As a matter of fact, not once in any biblical narrative did a biblical character do anything good or evil that caused G-D to step back and say to Himself, “Wow, didn’t see that coming.”
This isn’t to say that we are preprogrammed drones playing out the computer coding written for our lives. Not at all. Each of us has free will. We make millions of individual choices each day, and each choice affects the outcome of our day and ultimately our life. Yet, even though we each have free will, none of our free will choices change G-D’s plan. Each choice, while completely our choice, is part of an already known outcome.
Now, I know this paragraph is an over simplified example, but we are talking about G-D whose ways are beyond our understanding, so even the most complex example would still be a simplification. Think about history as if it was a football game that you were able to watch in real time after you watched a recording of the same game. Just because you knew the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10) would not mean you forced the events to take place.
Knowing that not one choice you have ever made or ever will make surprises G-D or causes Him to move on to Plan B for your life does not excuse our bad choices or sins in any way. It does, however, allow for us to enter into a deeper understanding of G-D’s sovereignty and His forgiveness, which can free us in a real way from the fear of “messing things up so badly that G-D cannot use us.”
As believers, too often the reason we don’t walk in our full potential is because we are afraid to fail. We are afraid to let our heavenly Father down. We are afraid we will let our family and faith community down. If we fail, then He will have to move on to Plan B so someone else can fix what we messed up and restore the perfect “Will of G-D.” This thinking in fear can be debilitating, but this fear is based upon a lie.
In order to believe that our actions, whether success or failures, can cause G-D to change to a Plan B, we have to throw away much of Scripture. For instance, Revelation 13:8, Galatians 4:1-4, Ephesians 1:9-11 and many, many more.
The point being made is that Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden didn’t cause G-D to change to Yeshua, His Plan “B.” Yeshua’s redemption of mankind was always Plan A. G-D doesn’t have a Plan B. He doesn’t need one. We can overcome our fear of failure and walk in fullness of faith from the moment we realize that just as Yeshua was and is G-D’s Plan A, we are also His Plan A. {eoa}
Eric Tokajer is author of With Me in Paradise, Transient Singularity, OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry, #ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer and Jesus is to Christianity as Pasta is to Italians.
