Plan; Execute!

Plan; Execute!

Within your heart you can make plans for your future, but the Lord chooses the steps you take to get there. Proverbs 16:9 TPT

There is a secret part to my earthly life that nobody can run for me. Men can make suggestions and provide advice or counsel, but the final decision as to the direction I want to take is a personal one. The world's system also requires and demands planning, but there are too many inconsistencies or unpredictabilities around me for me to approach life without any kind of plan. However, it is not enough to know I need to plan; it is even more important to know how to plan the right way, so that I can get all that God has purposed for me.

So, I sit down and make all the plans: short, medium and long term. I write down as much as I can, putting timelines and suggested resources that will help in getting those plans into actual fulfilment. The world has its methods: it says my plans must be Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-based. That's SMART plans. Each of these have its own meaning, and I will do well to know what they mean and how I can use them to lay out my plan, from planning to execution.

Now, there is a part that gets lost in most planning, and that is the God-factor. God Himself is a God of order, direction and planning. Fishes were not made before water was put in its rightful place; the habitat and resources for every Iiving creature was in place before the creature itself was formed. That is the output of a God of amazing planning, and if I am made in His likeness, I also think as He does. It will then mean that no matter how well laid my plan is, if I do not get the view of the One I look like, the plan may not end up the way the One wants it to. 

How do I take of the world's resources, which I did not create, to achieve a plan that the Creator Himself has not approved? So, as I plan, I must seek the view of the One who owns and controls the earth on which I live. I must seek His view on what He desires of me, and get guidance on what He wants me to do and how He wants it done. What is the point of elaborate plans if God is not backing them up? 

And I have a choice, and this is the frightening part: you can make the plans and they succeed, not because you were smart, but because God permitted them to. Don't go on about who you are and what you have done, as that would amount to pride and you know that God opposes the proud. I must make sure that I seek God's face as I plan, so that even as He directs my steps, He is free to take my plans in any direction He wants, as long as His will is fulfilled and my life is blessed. 

After all, why do we plan: is it not to get personal fulfilment in the life God has given us? If God offers me that in Him, why would I refuse it? If my submission to and acceptance of His will gives me fulfilment, why would I complain even if He tears up my plan to establish His own? And what if He simply uses my plan to achieve His own purpose? At the end of it all, His will is done, my life is fulfilled and happy, and eternal life is secured. There can be NOTHING better than this. His time of favour is here.