Pre-Blessed Planning

Read: Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

It is highly likely that you will have to engage in some planning today—either in your personal life or in our professional world. Success and satisfaction are not just going happen for you; it will take good thinking, focused effort, wise strategy and diligent implementation to achieve the things you desire.

But just remember this: You can make all the plans you want—and it is obvious from Proverbs that God expects you to plan wisely—yet at the end of the day, God will get what he wants. He has given you great latitude in laying out your plans, but when it is all said and done, you will be on a short leash. It is not your plans but God’s purposes that are going to prevail.

So here is a suggestion: Since God will get what he wants anyway, why not hitch your wagon to his star? Why not make sure your plans are really his plans? Wouldn’t that be a truly wise thing for you to do? In essence, that’s what the following well known verses are telling us:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT))

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3)

“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” (Psalm 37:4-7)

This is the key to personal and professional planning that is pre-blessed by the Lord. “Pre-blessed”—I like that thought. Pre-blessed simply means that what I want to do is guaranteed success because it is really what God already wants to do in, through and for me. And God has even offered us some pretty amazing planning resources to help us with pre-blessed planning: his authoritative and inerrant Word, continual and immediate access to his presence through prayer, the wise counsel of his friends and family, and the inner witness of his Holy Spirit.

So before you make your plans today, submit yourself to him. Open his Word—strategically and systematically, not randomly—and listen to him speak to you. Pray back what you have heard him say and ask him to help you accurately apply it to your life today. Talk to spiritually minded people and ask them to help you connect God’s truth to the things that are on your plate. And practice listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit as he reminds you to align your thoughts, desires and actions throughout the day to the plans of the Lord. Do that today—learn to do it every day—and before you implement your plans, they will be pre-blessed by the Lord himself.

We humans keep brainstorming options and plans,
but GOD’s purpose prevails.

~The Message

Your Assignment, Should You Choose To Accept It:

What’s on your plate today? Make sure to first run it by the Lord.

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

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