What's the Plan?
One of things that makes students unique is that your life is all about making plans. What are you doing Friday night? What classes are you taking next semester? Are you going to approach that girl or guy you're into? Bottom line: What are you going to do with your life?
I'm not trying to make you feel more pressured about all this planning; it's just the way the world works. When you were a kid, your folks took care of all that planning for you. You went where they made you go, ate what they gave you, read and watched what they allowed, and pretty much spent your days living out their plans for you.
If you're like most people, you'll come to a point in life in a few years that will involve far less plan-making. For better or worse, you'll be living with the results of your plans. Married to someone. Working a job a set number of hours a week. Getting the bills paid and the kids taken care of and your acts of service done. Your planning will be limited to whatever a limited budget and limited free time will allow — if you're like most people.
So you're living right now in the prime of your plan-making life. The consequences of what you decide about some big and little things in the next few years will have a lot to do with how your days and hours work themselves out.
That's why it matters that you learn to become a wise maker of plans today. We'll see in a few Proverbs below that wise planners and foolish planners end up with very different results.
How to be a Wise Planner
1) Ask the right people to help you make a good plan.
We all make a lot of plans inside our heads. We look at the different angles. We talk ourselves through big and little ideas about what we might do. But with the plans that really matter, Wisdom tells us to makes some phone calls, send out a few e-mails, invest in a serious interview or two.
Shocking news: People who live according to God's design for life make better plans that people in rebellion against God. It turns out God has a "veto" button for bad plans.
Again: "The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful." (Proverbs 12:5)
The wicked -- or anyone out to do things his own way instead of God's -- make plans, too. But God delights in tripping up those plans. He's watching, and we're mortal:
The idea here isn't just to say, "God, I commit this plan to you." The idea is to actually think about who God is and what you already know He wants from you -- to believe Him, to obey Him, to love Him -- and to build your plans out of that knowledge. That's wisdom.
4) Let God change your plan.
Here's the hardest part of making plans. You might consult the wisest counselors. You might be committed to living a righteous life by obeying God and finding ways to love Him. You might make a perfectly legit plan, fully ready to give Him all the glory.
And He might still allow life to turn your plan upside down. If so, our only choice is to see our frustrated plans as evidence that God loves us enough to change the direction of our life to something else, something we choose to believe He knows is better than our best-laid plans.
5) Work! the plan.
This final wise proverb is a message to all of us who like to spend all of our time making better plans, organizing our calendars and computer desktops and backpacks, researching more and more and more options. Eventually, we have to get to work working the plan! Wisdom says it pays off in the long run.
I'm not trying to make you feel more pressured about all this planning; it's just the way the world works. When you were a kid, your folks took care of all that planning for you. You went where they made you go, ate what they gave you, read and watched what they allowed, and pretty much spent your days living out their plans for you.
If you're like most people, you'll come to a point in life in a few years that will involve far less plan-making. For better or worse, you'll be living with the results of your plans. Married to someone. Working a job a set number of hours a week. Getting the bills paid and the kids taken care of and your acts of service done. Your planning will be limited to whatever a limited budget and limited free time will allow — if you're like most people.
So you're living right now in the prime of your plan-making life. The consequences of what you decide about some big and little things in the next few years will have a lot to do with how your days and hours work themselves out.
That's why it matters that you learn to become a wise maker of plans today. We'll see in a few Proverbs below that wise planners and foolish planners end up with very different results.
How to be a Wise Planner
1) Ask the right people to help you make a good plan.
We all make a lot of plans inside our heads. We look at the different angles. We talk ourselves through big and little ideas about what we might do. But with the plans that really matter, Wisdom tells us to makes some phone calls, send out a few e-mails, invest in a serious interview or two.
"Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." (Proverbs 15:22)You might not be planning a war, but is it less of a big deal to plan what college you'll go to, how you'll spend your summer, or what ministry you'll invest in? Pride says, "You know yourself best; go with whatever sounds good to you." Wisdom says, "Find someone wise who is also doing what you might like to do, and ask them how they got there."
"Make plans by seeking advice; if you wage war, obtain guidance." (Proverbs 20:18)
But don't ask just anyone: "The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful." (Proverbs 12:5)2) Be a righteous dude. Or girl.
Shocking news: People who live according to God's design for life make better plans that people in rebellion against God. It turns out God has a "veto" button for bad plans.
Again: "The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful." (Proverbs 12:5)
The wicked -- or anyone out to do things his own way instead of God's -- make plans, too. But God delights in tripping up those plans. He's watching, and we're mortal:
"They encourage each other in evil plans, they talk about hiding their snares; they say, "Who will see them?" They plot injustice and say, "We have devised a perfect plan!" Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning. But God will shoot them with arrows; suddenly they will be struck down." (Psalms 64:5-7)3) Surrender your plan to God.
"Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing." (Psalm 146:3-4)
"Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (Proverbs 16:3)Now we come to the biggies. God controls all the plans of all the people in all times and places. If we want any hope of having our carefully made plans work out, we've got to start by giving those plans to Him.
The idea here isn't just to say, "God, I commit this plan to you." The idea is to actually think about who God is and what you already know He wants from you -- to believe Him, to obey Him, to love Him -- and to build your plans out of that knowledge. That's wisdom.
4) Let God change your plan.
Here's the hardest part of making plans. You might consult the wisest counselors. You might be committed to living a righteous life by obeying God and finding ways to love Him. You might make a perfectly legit plan, fully ready to give Him all the glory.
And He might still allow life to turn your plan upside down. If so, our only choice is to see our frustrated plans as evidence that God loves us enough to change the direction of our life to something else, something we choose to believe He knows is better than our best-laid plans.
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)Remember, God's plans never fail: "But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations." (Psalm 33:11)
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21)
5) Work! the plan.
This final wise proverb is a message to all of us who like to spend all of our time making better plans, organizing our calendars and computer desktops and backpacks, researching more and more and more options. Eventually, we have to get to work working the plan! Wisdom says it pays off in the long run.
"The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty." (Proverbs 21:5)Finally, Psalm 20 is a blessing written by King David. It's my prayer for you, as long as you walk in God's plan:
"May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed." (Psalm 20:4)
posted by Christopher Lyon at
3:27 PM
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