Plans...

"And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Mark 8:31-38

The disciples maintained an ingrained mindset that the kingdom of God was a material, physical kingdom and the Messiah would come, rescue them from the heavy hand of the Romans, and reestablish the kingdom of Israel. So when Jesus, the very Son of God, declared that he would be rejected and killed it was too much for Peter to handle. I mean, how could their very Messiah be rejected by the chief leaders of the Jews? Killed?

I often relate to Peter. I have a vision of what God's kingdom is and what it looks like.
But is it God's vision?
Am I ready to be rebuked by Jesus when my thoughts are not His?
Am I willing to sacrifice my ideas of where God is taking me to God's eternal, sovereign, and loving plan?
Are my "kingdom" plans the plans of man and not of God?

Am I ready to see my plans rejected, cursed, spit upon, beaten, and nailed to a cross so that countless millions would enter the kingdom of God?

I hasten towards an hour
when earthly pursuits and possessions
will appear vain,
when it will be indifferent whether I have been
rich or poor,
successful or disappointed,
admired or despised.
But it will be of eternal moment that I have
mourned for sin,
hungered and thirsted after righteousness,
loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity,
gloried in his cross.
~Valley of Vision (Openness)