For those with type A personalities the prevenience of God or prevenient grace is a difficult doctrine. That is, the beauty of strong, take-charge kinds of people are that they get things done. You and we are initiators, starters. We have no problem grabbing the mic, making the proclamation and leading the charge. We have assessed the problem, taken stock of our resources and created a metric for success. However, there is one thing we have not accounted for—the prevenience of God. This doctrine brought to light predominately by noted Armineans, is simply that God was at work in a situation, a people or a problem even before you were aware of the situation, people or problem. Or to put it another way, God was working grace before you knew he was. Us type A-er’s have our work cut out for us in wrestling with this reality. That is, we must take our plans and submit them to the plans of God before we take action. Something along the lines of “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purposes that prevail.” (Proverbs 19:21) Meaning, before we ever make a move we must acknowledge that God is the initiator in the situation. He already has a plan. And he has already been at work before we ever thought about it. That is, we are not smuggling the grace of God into a situation or place. He was already there when we arrived.
So this begs the question, “Why make plans if God already has one?” The answer is simple…God is not communicating to us [not] to make plans, he is just telling us that our plans may not actually line up with his plan. Bottom line? Learn to be flexible. Be aware of what God has already prepared. Watch for seeds that have already been sown and watered before you arrived. Open your eyes to the provenience of God and then Go for it!
