Planning to Succeed - Martin Wiles

Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house. Proverbs 24:27 NLT

My name was in the pot, and with God’s help, I was planning to succeed.

Type A’s are known for planning—sometimes to excess. I was cursed from birth. Both my parents were Type A’s, and I followed suit. Every church I had led, I did so with a plan, and this time would be no different. When the board recommending me to the church asked if I had a vision for their church, I removed a pad and read off my list. I didn’t know if I’d be their pastor, but I had a plan just in case. 

Solomon’s advice was pertinent. Building a house before preparing one’s fields was foolish. Suppose a dry spell hit or enemies swooped in and stole the crop. Saving from a bountiful harvest and then building the house made more sense than taking on debt with no assurance of how to pay for it. 

When planning, we should make a point to include God. Since God says he wants to be involved in the details of our lives, involving him only makes sense. Although he won’t sit around a table and talk audibly to us, we can listen as he speaks to our spirits with his Spirit. Ideas will come that we would have never thought of on our own. Insights will flow. And we’ll feel a sense of peace when we’ve received his directions.

We should also include others in our planning. Although I had a list of plans before leading the church, I immediately began to include others. Amazingly, most of their suggestions were the same as mine, which assured me they also included God in their planning. Two heads are better than one, and lone rangers often become just that—alone. 

We can plan with confidence when we include God and other spirit-led believers. We can then couple confidence with optimism. If God is before and in the middle of the plans, they won’t fail. In fact, God’s plans can’t fail—which means we won’t when he is the author of our plans. Good planning means having a backup plan. I’ve often appeared to mess up God’s plan for my life, but somehow, he always brings the plan back to his plan. 

Get your plans from God and confidently move forward into your bright future.

Father, I ask for your guidance as I plan to accomplish your will. 

I invite you to try my book Grits, Grace, and Grands. If you have grands, this book is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.