• Mon, 20th October 2008
• Tom Golding

One of the tensions I find myself dealing with regularly in life and ministry is the tension between developing strategies and trusting God.

That God expects us to plan and implement well is clear from Scripture. I spoke about that back in the January issue of ACM Today. The other side comes out in Psalm 33:16-17 - "The best-equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior. Do not count on your warhorse to give you victory - for all its strength, it cannot save you." [NLT] It is easy for us to get swept along in the arrogant and naturalistic thinking of our world. We may begin to think that it is our skillfulness, our strategic thinking, our resources that will bring success. To a certain extent, such thinking is true. Good planning and wisdom does tend to bring success. But ultimately the plans and activities of God are determinative.

Verses 10-11 fill out the concept - "The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes. But the Lord's plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken." The psalm ends with an affirmation to "wait" or "hope" in the Lord, who is "our help and shield" (v. 20).

This is where we find ourselves as a college. We have expended much energy strategizing and working to implement new initiatives. But in the end, we believe that God must work on our behalf. Please pray with us as we wait upon Him to unfold our future.