81 Bible Verses about Plans

Now, then, say to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am forming an evil thing against you, and designing a design against you: let every man come back now from his evil way, and let your ways and your doings be changed for the better.

But if you are slow in driving out the people of the land, then those of them who are still there will be like pin-points in your eyes and like thorns in your sides, troubling you in the land where you are living. And it will come about that as it was my purpose to do to them, so I will do to you.

Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls. This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the green plant, like grass on the house-tops.

For what has been ordered for me by him will be gone through to the end: and his mind is full of such designs For this cause I am in fear before him, my thoughts of him overcome me. For God has made my heart feeble, and my mind is troubled before the Ruler of all.

O Lord, you are my God; I will give praise to you, I will give honour to your name; for you have done great acts of power; your purposes in the past have been made true and certain in effect. For you have made a town a waste place: a strong town a mass of broken walls; the tower of the men of pride has come to an end; it will never be put up again.

Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls. This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field, or a green plant; like the grass on the house-tops, which a cold wind makes waste.

It may be that they will give ear, and that every man will be turned from his evil way, so that my purpose of sending evil on them because of the evil of their doings may be changed.

The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you.

For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is an evil time.

The Lord has taken an oath, saying, My design will certainly come about, and my purpose will be effected: To let the Assyrian be broken in my land, and crushed under foot on my mountains: there will his yoke be taken away from them, and his rule over them come to an end. This is the purpose for all the earth: and this is the hand stretched out over all nations.read more.
For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who will make it of no effect? when his hand is stretched out, by whom may it be turned back?

Where, then, are your wise men? let them make clear to you, let them give you knowledge of the purpose of the Lord of armies for Egypt.

By whom was this purposed against Tyre, the crowning town, whose traders are chiefs, whose business men are honoured in the land? It was the purpose of the Lord of armies to put pride to shame, to make sport of the glory of those who are honoured in the earth.

For this cause give ear to the decision of the Lord which he has made against Edom, and to his purposes designed against the people of Teman: Truly, they will be pulled away by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their fields with them.

So give ear to the decision of the Lord which he has made against Babylon, and to his purposes designed against the land of the Chaldaeans; Truly, they will be pulled away by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their fields with them.

And now a number of nations have come together against you, and they say, Let her be made unclean and let our eyes see the fate of Zion. But they have no knowledge of the thoughts of the Lord, their minds are not able to see his purpose: for he has got them together like stems of grain to the crushing-floor. Up! and let the grain be crushed, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron and your feet brass, and a number of peoples will be broken by you, and you will give up their increase to the Lord and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

In whom we have a heritage, being marked out from the first in his purpose who does all things in agreement with his designs;

O Lord my God, great are the wonders which you have done in your thought for us; it is not possible to put them out in order before you; when I would give an account of them, their number is greater than I may say.

Because God had kept some better thing for us, so that it was not possible for them to become complete without us.

And you are to make the House from the design which you saw on the mountain. And you are to make a veil of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with designs of winged ones by a good workman: Hanging it by gold hooks from four pillars of wood, plated with gold and fixed in silver bases.read more.
And you are to put up the veil under the hooks, and put inside it the ark of the law: the veil is to be a division between the holy place and the most holy. You are to put the cover on the ark of the law, inside the most holy place. And outside the veil you are to put the table, and the support for the lights opposite the table on the south side of the House; and the table is to be on the north side. And you are to make a curtain for the doorway of the Tent, of the best linen with needlework of blue and purple and red. And make five pillars for the curtain, of hard wood plated with gold; their hooks are to be of gold and their bases of brass

Then David gave to his son Solomon the design of the doorway of the house of God and of its houses and its store-houses, and the higher rooms and the inner rooms and the place for the mercy-seat; And the design of all he had in his heart for the outer squares of the house of the Lord, and for the rooms all round it, and for the store-houses of the house of the Lord, and for the store-houses for the holy things;

You, son of man, give the children of Israel an account of this house, so that they may be shamed because of their evil-doing: and let them see the vision of it and its image. And they will be shamed by what they have done; so give them the knowledge of the form of the house and its structure, and the ways out of it and into it, and all its laws and its rules, writing it down for them: so that they may keep all its laws and do them.

Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets.

And you are to make the House from the design which you saw on the mountain.

For this cause give ear to the decision of the Lord which he has made against Edom, and to his purposes designed against the people of Teman: Truly, they will be pulled away by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their fields with them. The earth is shaking with the noise of their fall; their cry is sounding in the Red Sea.

I see that you are able to do every thing, and to give effect to all your designs.

The Lord's purpose is eternal, the designs of his heart go on through all the generations of man.

Cursed are those who make use of ox-cords for pulling the evil thing, and the bands of a young ox for their sin! Who say, Let him do his work quickly, let him make it sudden, so that we may see it: let the design of the Holy One of Israel come near, so that it may be clear to us.

Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country; I have said it, and I will give effect to it; the thing designed by me will certainly be done.

It may be that the people of Judah, hearing of all the evil which it is my purpose to do to them, will be turned, every man from his evil ways; so that they may have my forgiveness for their evil-doing and their sin.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O Israel, am I not able to do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. See, like earth in the potter's hand are you in my hands, O Israel. Whenever I say anything about uprooting a nation or a kingdom, and smashing it and sending destruction on it;read more.
If, in that very minute, that nation of which I was talking is turned away from its evil, my purpose of doing evil to them will be changed. And whenever I say anything about building up a nation or a kingdom, and planting it; If, in that very minute, it does evil in my eyes, going against my orders, then my good purpose, which I said I would do for them, will be changed.

And God saw what they did, how they were turned from their evil way; and God's purpose was changed as to the evil which he said he would do to them, and he did it not.

They make themselves strong in an evil purpose; they make holes for secret nets; they say, Who will see it, Or make discovery of our secret purpose? The design is framed with care; and the inner thought of a man, and his heart, is deep.

Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me take out twelve thousand men and this very night I will go after David: And I will come up with him when he is tired and feeble, and make him full of fear: and all the people with him will go in flight; and I will make an attack on the king only: And I will make all the people come back to you as a bride comes back to her husband: it is the life of only one man you are going after; so all the people will be at peace.read more.
And the saying was pleasing to Absalom and to the responsible men of Israel.

Then King Ahaz went to Damascus for a meeting with Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; and there he saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest a copy of the altar, giving the design of it and all the details of its structure. And from the copy King Ahaz sent from Damascus, Urijah made an altar and had it ready by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus.

For their hearts are full of evil designs; and they are ever making ready causes of war.

Will not the designers of evil come into error? But mercy and good faith are for the designers of good.

If you have done foolishly in lifting yourself up, or if you have had evil designs, put your hand over your mouth.

Ho! uncontrolled children, says the Lord, who give effect to a purpose which is not mine, and who make an agreement, but not by my spirit, increasing their sin:

But they will say, There is no hope: we will go on in our designs, and every one of us will do what he is moved by the pride of his evil heart to do.

A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.

And when they had come together with those in authority, and had made their decision, they gave much money to the watchmen, saying, Say, His disciples came by night and took him away secretly while we were sleeping.

The purposes of upright men are right, but the designs of evil-doers are deceit.

Then David the king got up and said, Give ear to me, my brothers and my people; it was my desire to put up a house, a resting-place for the ark of the Lord's agreement, and for the foot-rest of our God; and I had got material ready for the building of it.

You have put to shame the thoughts of the poor, but the Lord is his support.

The purposes of the man of industry have their outcome only in wealth; but one who is over-quick in acting will only come to be in need.

But the noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by these he will be guided.

You may be certain, my brothers, that it has frequently been in my mind to come to you (but till now I was kept from it), so that I might have some fruit from you in the same way as I have had it from the other nations.

Whenever I go to Spain (for it is my hope to see you on my way, and to be sent on there by you, if first I may in some measure have been comforted by your company)--

And being certain of this, it was my purpose to come to you before, so that you might have a second grace; And by way of Corinth to go into Macedonia, and from there to come back again to you, so that you might send me on my way to Judaea. If then I had such a purpose, did I seem to be changing suddenly? or am I guided in my purposes by the flesh, saying, Yes, today, and, No, tomorrow?

Where there are no wise suggestions, purposes come to nothing; but by a number of wise guides they are made certain.

Then the people of the land made the hands of the people of Judah feeble, troubling them with fear in their building; And they gave payment to men who made designs against them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king.

Every purpose is put into effect by wise help: and by wise guiding make war.

And Saul said, Then say to David, The king has no desire for any bride-price, but only for the private parts of a hundred Philistines so that the king may get the better of his haters. But it was in Saul's mind that David might come to his end by the hands of the Philistines.

Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, news has been given to your servant that it is Saul's purpose to come to Keilah and send destruction on the town because of me.

O Lord, take me out of the hands of sinners; keep me safe from the violent man: for they are designing my downfall.

Go in flight, go wandering far off, take cover in deep places, O people of Hazor, says the Lord; for Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a design against you, he has a purpose against you in mind.

Then they said, Come, let us make a design against Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest, or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet. Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and let us give attention with care to what he says.

Then the Pharisees went and had a meeting to see how they might make use of his words to take him.

Now there was talk among the chief priests of putting Lazarus to death; For because of him a great number of the Jews went away and had belief in Jesus.

Then, after some days, the Jews made an agreement together to put him to death: But Saul got knowledge of their design. And they kept watch day and night on the roads out of the town, so that they might put him to death:

Then the armed men were for putting the prisoners to death, so that no one would get away by swimming. But the captain, desiring to keep Paul safe, kept them from their purpose, and gave orders that those who had knowledge of swimming were to go off the ship and get first to land:

How foolish it is to say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this town, and be there for a year and do business there and get wealth: When you are not certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone. But the right thing to say would be, If it is the Lord's pleasure and if we are still living, we will do this and that.

The Lord undoes the designs of the nations; he makes the thoughts of the peoples without effect.

May he give you your heart's desire, and put all your purposes into effect.

O Lord, give not the wrongdoer his desire; give him no help in his evil designs, or he may be uplifted in pride. (Selah.)

Man's breath goes out, he is turned back again to dust; in that day all his purposes come to an end.

The designs of the heart are man's, but the answer of the tongue comes from the Lord. All a man's ways are clean to himself; but the Lord puts men's spirits into his scales. Put your works into the hands of the Lord, and your purposes will be made certain.

A man's heart may be full of designs, but the purpose of the Lord is unchanging.

Wisdom and knowledge and wise suggestions are of no use against the Lord.

Let your designs be formed, and they will come to nothing; give your orders, and they will not be effected: for God is with us.

And the spirit of Egypt will be troubled in her, and I will make her decisions without effect: and they will be turning to the false gods, and to those who make hollow sounds, and to those who have control of spirits, and to those who are wise in secret arts.

I will make the purpose of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place; I will have them put to the sword by their haters, and by the hands of those who have designs on their life; and their dead bodies I will give to be food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth.