The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever. (2 Samuel 7:11-16 NIV).

Our reading today is taken from a portion of the revelation that the prophet Nathan delivered to David. Perhaps the most difficult part of the message was that David would not build the temple. That task would be given to Solomon. I am sure that David was disappointed. Isn’t that the way we react when our plans don’t seem to coincide with God’s plans for our lives? There are times in my own life that I don't always like His plan. They don’t always take me to the “mountaintops.” After all, I still enjoy the mountaintops much more than the valleys. If it were up to me there would only be mountaintop experiences. However, as many have pointed out without the valleys the mountaintops would not be nearly as exhilarating. Still, if it were up to me instead of writing devotionals, which are going out to the world through electronic means, I would be going personally to share those messages.

Sometimes I don’t understand why God has me where He has me and why He has sent me to certain places at certain times. That has brought me to a study of David and I have been learning some great lessons from his life. One of David's dreams was to build a magnificent Temple for God, but God said, “No.” God had a better plan. David would gather the materials and Solomon his son would build the Temple. However, God's plan for David was much greater in that Jesus would sit on the throne of David forever. Jesus' Kingdom will last forever and the Temple that God would build would be built of living stones. There would be no end of this Kingdom. God's plan for David's life was far greater than he could possibly comprehend and it is probably greater than I can comprehend as well.

So, when what we want doesn't work out and we are down because our plans have failed it may actually be a time for rejoicing because God has a better plan. We have to remember that when we think we are in the valley it may not actually be a valley but only a time of preparation that is necessary for the fulfillment of the greater plan in our lives. Our part, which is sometimes difficult, is to continue to have faith and trust that God is working and will bring us through this time in our lives. We must continue to walk with Him even when we cannot see how anything will ever change. But if we are faithfully committed to right living and serving our God there will come a day when the valley is behind and the summit is ahead.

What seems impossible for us is very easy for God. Even though we think it will never happen and that it is impossible; God can bring it about. When He does bring it about it is like being transported into another dimension. We do not know how He did it but we know that somehow He did. Will you trust God believing that He indeed has a better plan for your life?