Planning is an amazing tool we’ve mostly learned for the big challenges of life. Right? It’s amazing all the plans we make, and then we tell God, and he just chuckles… Perhaps it becomes a huge laugh as we produce reams of paper to support our decision! Why? Quick question. Did you pray before you planned your scenario?
When you jumpstart your schedule and fail to take a measure of God’s intention for your day, then you are simply opening yourself up to great opportunities for failure!
When you jumpstart your schedule and fail to take a measure of God's intention for your day, then you are simply opening yourself up to great opportunities for failure! Share on XWhy? It’s simple teaching from Jesus that we have seen time and again throughout the Old Testament.
Seek first for His Kingdom and Will, and you will get the blessings of everything else added to you. (Matthew 6:33) Do it first in the morning, just like Abraham (Genesis 19:27), and as taught by Solomon (Proverbs 8:17). Why? That’s the best time of the day to make your plans…long after you consider God’s plans for you!
Think About It
After failure, Israel is in captivity for their sins, the prophet speaks to them in their later years.
For thus says the LORD:
After seventy years are completed at Babylon,
I will visit you and perform My good word toward you,
and cause you to return to this place.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD,
thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me,
and I will listen to you.
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, says the LORD…
(Jeremiah 29:10-14 NKJV)
When we keep His Perspectives our perspective, then things go according to his plan for our lives. And isn’t that what we truly want? This world around us teases us with baubles and trinkets and we are tempted to a shakier path, but God knows his thoughts and intentions for us are better than we can think for ourselves.
Too often we think from irrational emotion and swoop into a project without considering all the planning it takes for success. Even Jesus taught several thousand years ago the planning component is very important.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost,
whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation,
and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying,
‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
(Luke 14:28-30 NKJV)
Prayer Is Important
You see. I believe we think prayer is a waste of time and effort. But when you prayerfully consider your plans and whether it’s timely or not, are you not praying for guidance to a successful end?
“Our prayers may be awkward.
Our attempts may be feeble.
But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it
and not in the one who says it,
our prayers do make a difference.”
~Max Lucado
Here’s the key that unlocks the treasure:
You must yield to the answer that prayer provides.
Kick against that guiding voice as Paul did, and you will find yourself blinded and led about by others until you get your act together! (Acts 9:1-9) Instead, follow the example of Jesus as he prays that last time in the Garden… “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” (Luke 22:42)
So. Before you plan your day, pray. Then that mantra of my older flying days will work for your success!
“Plan your flight, fly your plan.”