Proverbs 16:9 – In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. (NIV)

This Bible verse was always my father's favourite one. The reason stems from the following story.

During the Second World War, my dad had orders to report for duty on a ship due to sail through the Gulf of Mexico. At the time, that stretch of water was known as Torpedo Alley.

The day his train left Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, for the seaport at Mobile, Alabama, mother and father prayed that he wouldn't miss the ship and that he would have safe travels. On the way, his passenger train was sidetracked for quite a long time to let a munitions train pass. It seemed to dad that he would surely miss his boat. Although he prayed again that he would make his ship, his fear became reality. He missed the boat.

When he reported for duty, he received a reprimand from his commanding officer and was re-posted to a destroyer escort. Later, he learned that the other ship, the one that they had prayed he wouldn't miss, had been torpedoed with great loss of life.

At the time when he missed the ship, everything seemed to be going wrong for my father. However, in missing the boat, their prayers for safety had been answered. Dad's prayers didn't match up with God's plan, nor do our ideas about what ought to be always match up with what God knows is best.

The fact is that God's plan is always best, and we need to trust Him!

Prayer: Lord God, in Jesus' name, we pray that we would know Your will for our lives and that our plans would conform to it. Amen.

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About the author:

Cassandra Wessel <casswessel4319@gmail.com>
Tionesta, Pennsylvania, USA
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