I\nam a plan your work, work your plan type of guy. The value of planning was\ninstilled into me through success and failure. Success frequently followed a\nwell thought out plan, and failure is the natural destination of poor planning.\nUnmitigated disaster is the contemporary of no planning. You will find the two\nof them huddled together in a cardboard box under the overpass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I start every worthwhile endeavor with a written\nplan. Peter Drucker was famous for saying, “If you can’t measure it, you\ncan’t improve it.” A well-written plan is a foundation for change\nmanagement. Drucker’s statement is a well held secular view, but what about\nscripture? What does scripture say about planning? The Bible does talk about\npreparation. Proverbs, in particular, is full of advice on planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Proverbs\n15:22<\/strong>,\n“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers, they succeed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proverbs 16:3<\/strong>, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he\nwill establish your plans.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proverbs\n16:9,<\/strong> “The\nheart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke adds to this in Luke 14:28<\/strong>,\n“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and\nestimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prayer is the first critical step in building a\nplan. The reason for this is because God already has a plan; we are trying to\ndiscover it. A well-known and often quoted verse from Jeremiah states (Jeremiah 29:11<\/strong>),\n“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you\nand not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” It is there for\nthe discovering. We need to be cautious of getting too cute with our ideas. The\nBible also warns us against relying too much on our cleverness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proverbs\n23:4<\/strong>,\n“Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? Because God is the author of all things. His\nview of time and space is dramatically different than ours. He understands the\nripple effect of our actions throughout eternity. Here is what He says about\nHis view of the future (Isaiah 55:8)<\/strong>, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,\nneither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.” What does God say\nabout our knowledge of the future? Proverb 27:1<\/strong>,\n“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may\nbring.” We know nada, zip, zilch about tomorrow. We write elaborate\nmathematical models and consult historical trends, but in the end, forecasting\nthe future is an educated guess at best. God has already seen the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James 4:13-14<\/strong> “Come now, you who say, “Today or\ntomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade\nand make a profit”\u2014 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is\nyour life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of a plan as not a static document, but a\njournal. It demonstrates and illuminates our thinking. Demonstrates because we\ndocument why we thought what we thought. It illuminates by shining a light on\nboth the good and bad of our logic. We start with what we believe to be\naccurate, and then we modify it as God enlightens us. It gives us a chance to\nlook back at how our thinking has changed. Did we keep the ideas and insights\nthat were good, did we discard poor or inadequate thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of my experiences is that some people take a\ngreat deal of time and effort to create a very workable plan. Then they stick\nit in a drawer and never look at it again. It was an intellectual exercise with\nno real meaning. Down the road, when they do not meet expectations, they have\nlost the guidepost that would have told them to make corrections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a plan is essential. Discovering the source\nof that plan is critical. Our goal is not to create a vision of our future. It\nis to realize the future that God has already created. The plan is the\nfoundation of God’s will in our life. As the seasons of our life change, God\nwill reveal more of His vision for us. As we see more, we can make adjustments\nto the plan. But to go through life without a plan is folly. Even a poorly\nwritten plan is better than no plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As\nwe chase our purpose, we need to document our progress so that we can determine\nwhat we know and what we need to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark\n11:24<\/strong>,\n“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have\nreceived it, and it will be yours.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you don’t have a destination, any road will get you there. Find that point on the horizon and go for it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[10,12,9],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purpose","tag-business","tag-christian","tag-purpose"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Comes Prayer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A Plan is Essential but Imperfect<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
My Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n