Do you have a backup plan, a plan “B” in case plan “A” does not work? Most people are told to always have a back-up plan for major events of life in case your first plan fails because we are human and everything doesn’t always go as we planned.
Unfortunately, a lot of Christians apply this principle in regards to their faith in God, as they relate God failing them as other men have done. They declare that they are trusting God in a certain situation, but have a back-up plan in case things don’t work out the way they think they should. It is a plan “B” to take over a situation themselves, or trust in someone else, when God fails them in plan “A”.
The deception
As an example, someone with a cancer diagnosis will say “I’m trusting the Lord for my healing.” Yet they take chemo treatments. They operate out of plan “B” while confessing plan “A.” When someone does that they are automatically kicking God out of the equation. They try to impress others of their faith in God, but in fact are only deceiving themselves, others, and God, about where they really have placed their faith.
It would be like going to a fancy restaurant and asking the chef to cook a special meal that is on the menu for you and then asking to have the cook at the local burger place be able to come into the kitchen and cook it for you. The cook from the burger place can only cook your meal on a “burger level”, which is far below the “chef level” of the fancy restaurant.
If you say that you are taking chemo and hoping in the Lord healing you through that ordeal then that is really relying on the chemo to kill the cancer, as if God can’t kill the cancer but yet can heal you.
Trusting humanity
If you don’t have the faith to trust God completely for your situation, that’s not a sin. We all have different levels of faith in God, which should always be on the increase. The sin is lying about it.
So go ahead and take the chemo, and trust in man, or the medicine, or whatever you have built your faint in, but don’t veil your actions under the guise that you are completely trusting God.
God does not need any help in dealing in your behalf with any of your situations. God does not take a supporting role, just control.
God works in absolute truth
Who or what you are giving credit to for your healing makes all the difference. Your declaration has to line up with your action. It cannot be a “dual” confession, or declaration. God is not going to work in your behalf to kill the cancer and heal your body if He is not going to get the whole credit.
If the chemo does kill the cancer and your body recovers, then don’t be saying that God healed you when your body did it on its own. God designed your body to be able to do so under some circumstances, but it is not a miracle from God, or a divine intervention.
What is your expectation?
Faith in God has an expectation.
But here is the truth: if you have a back-up plan, or a plan “B”, then you are not really trusting God. You are expecting God to fail, which He never does – He cannot, and never will.
When something does not turn out as we expected, the failure is not God’s fault but ours. We are the variable in this equation. God cannot change, and He is always faithful to do what He says he will do – Numbers 23:16.
Fear and doubt – the faith stealer duo
Both doubt and fear will work in tandem to do a number on you to get you to think that God will fail. When you give in to fear and doubt the devil then controls you, which he is always trying to do.
Fear and faith work of the same principle, as they both expect something to happen, based on which one you put your belief in, just that they differ in the results.
What seed that you feed the most in the garden of your heart will produce the actual harvest. In always fearing what you think could happen, the devil has an opening to operate his destruction in that exact area. Job found that out –Job 3:25.
With God, He is all you need
You do not need a back-up plan in trusting God. He is the plan. There is no plan “B” when you are completely trusting God.
Do you have a plan “B” for your salvation? Jesus is the only plan for man’s salvation. If Jesus is your only plan for salvation, why do you think that you need a plan “B” for other things that you are trusting Him for?
So, if you have a plan “B” then there are two things going on:
1) either you are not really trusting God completely. Proverbs 3:5 starts out with this – “Trust the Lord with all your heart…” The key here is “all” your heart, not just part of or a majority of, but “all” of. “All” leaves no room to trust anyone else.
2) or you don’t understand how great God is and the covenant relationship you have with Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t just go to the cross and accomplish the great victory He did for us for Him not to be able to be trusted to provide the blessings of His sacrifice to those who are His.
The danger of choice
In America, we have so many choices available to help us solve life’s problems that we do not have to rely on just one choice all of the time. Take our health for example. If your faith in God as healer is weak, you can go to a doctor to get some medicine that will take care of the symptom but usually not the problem itself.
Sometimes the medicine does have a cure, but for the most part most doctors are just glorified drug pushers, just like the big Pharmacy companies that want to keep you hooked on taking their medicine rather than coming up with a drug for a cure.
Unfortunately, in most health problems, God, Who has the cure, is not consulted or trusted until the very end, when all hope in man has faded away.
Ever wonder why in most undeveloped nations or third world nations that missionaries and evangelists can tell wonderful stories about God healing many in their services? These people have no choice, no alternative except trusting God. There is no human alternative so they trust in God and He rewards according to their faith. That was what it was like when Jesus ministered. Multitudes came to him for their healing because He was their only answer – such as the blind, the deaf, the lepers, the demon possessed, the cripple, etc.
When you look at men of faith in the Bible, you see that they had no choice but to trust in God.
There was no alternative rescuer for Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego (Daniel 3:8-30), nor for Daniel (Daniel 6). Nor for the children of Israel at the Red Sea (Exodus 14), or for Judah and King Jehoshaphat against the great army that came against them (II Chronicles 20), of for King Asa and Judah against the million man Ethiopian and Lubim army that came against them (II Chronicles 14).
Plan “B” is not God’s best for you
When God is your only plan, the He is able to work in your life based on His abilities as God.
Psalm 118:8, “It is better top trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.”
Would you trust a major repair on your automobile to an untrained mechanic, or to a seasoned mechanic who has the experience and tools necessary to do the job right? So why do we not trust God completely.
After all, He created us and He certainly knows how to heal us and has made provision for that through the stripes of Jesus. Jesus has won the victory over all that the devil can come against us with.
Plan “B” is a deception of the devil
The devil whispers in your mind the need for a plan “B” because he does not want you trusting in God. God does not give you a plan “B.” God only gives you Him as plan “A.”
When you trust in God the devil loses control over you. Operating in plan “B” gives him control.
If you have little faith, or weak faith, then a plan “B” may be your only option, but God wants you to expand your trust in Him so that He is the only one you look to.
There is no reward from God, no intervention from God, and all His resources, in your behalf when you operate in plan “B.”
Testing of your faith in God
Your faith in God will always be under test. It is part of your Christian growth.
The devil will always be testing your faith in God, to see where your faith is and how strong it is, so that he can work to destroy it.
God may test your faith as well, to not only reveal to yourself where your faith in Him is but to cause you to produce more fruit (John 15:1-8).
Covid-19 has been the testing ground of many Christians, especially preachers, revealing those who are really trusting God. They may say that they are trusting God, but, yielding to fear, they wear the masks and take the vaccines. They say that they are just being careful, like God was going to miss protecting you from the virus, as if He was going to not catch one of those virus particles, and that one would get away and be the one to infect you.
God never changes.
So if He has been faithful to protect, provide, and work in behalf of those who have trusted Him in the past, including you, then why would He not do that in your current situation? It has to be a complete trust, so that only He gets the glory, as you will have a testimony that will strengthen your faith in Him. God is not going to share His glory with any other.
God never changes, like the paved road that you drive on. The pavement stays the same so you can operate on it in full confidence that you will get to your destination. .
God is even better than a paved road, as a paved road has some vulnerabilities to the destructive forces of nature and traffic, but God has no vulnerabilities.
If our Heavenly Father trusted Jesus enough to fulfill all that was needed for your salvation and abundant life, why would you think that He, as your covenant Lord and Savior, will fail in supplying all your needs?
Without a complete trust in God you will not have a testimony that God met your need. If you put your trust, even partially in man, then man is who is going to get the credit in working in your situation.
Our Christian walk
The Bible is full of examples pointing us to a walk of faith in God. Consider the 11th chapter of Hebrews. So isn’t our Christian walk supposed to be a walk of faith? There are plenty of scripture to support that.
Yet today the Church, as a whole, has swallowed the lies of humanism, preferring to trust in man rather than God.
One of the main purposes of life here on Earth is to train us for an eternal life with God, of trusting in Him alone, for in eternity, God will be the only One available to trust. There will be no other source available to fulfill a Plan “B.”
So now is the time to start getting rid of your plan "B" options and start trusting in God alone. When you do you will start entering into the place of rest God has provided for those who trust in Him (Hebrews 4:1-3).
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