Making plans.

It seems like a great deal of time is spent making plans:

            Who’s got to be where by when and how they get there and back.

            Making and keeping appointments.

            How to get things that need to be done, done by when they should be.

            Making goals and plotting how to meet them.

            Etc, etc, etc…

Consider what the Word has to say about planning:

James 4:13-16  “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
Proverbs 27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."
Proverbs 16:9 "The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps."

Planning.

Plotting a course of action.  Having a strategy or a means to accomplish a task.
Planning is a necessary part of daily life for families, individuals, work, and play.  It’s a good thing in general. But as I have been standing still with the concept of planning several “life lessons” or truths come to light:

Nothing ever really goes as planned.

Flexibility needs to be part of the plan.

Often it is only AFTER an experience, that we can understand God’s plan was different than ours … and better.  Or we may discover that the plans we have made, the process we’ve gone through, the experiences we have are really just preparation for something God had in store for us all along.

Now there’s a thought to stand still with...

Planning may become preparation for what God will call us to do. 

Perhaps when it comes to making plans for goals we are looking at, we need to keep in mind that we are actually preparing. Preparing  -  equipping; girding; readying; strengthening; training; laying the ground work… for His purpose.

Ephesians 2:10  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
1 Peter 3:15  But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
2 Timothy 2:21  Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
Psalm 85:13  Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

Our plans are part of God's preparation for future service. He will inform us of what service that will be when He is ready and He knows that we are prepared and ready.

Let’s pray our plans, our preparation, are according to His will.