What’s Your Plan?
During the fifteen years following my mandatory retirement from a local church, I have traveled to many states in the U.S. and many countries in the world to train pastors. As soon as I knew where I was going, I started to make a plan of how to get there. Making a good plan is essential.
Some people in organizations dream about how the future should be—but don’t make a plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. A dream without a plan can become a nightmare!
I never enter my car, crank it, and decide to see which direction the car wanted to go. If you don’t have a plan to get where you need to be, you will never get there. As the great philosopher, Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might end up someplace else.” What’s your plan for fulfilling God’s purpose for your life? Here are some suggestions I find helpful:
- I need to plan now. You don’t put off planning for the future. I could never have gone to India five times to train pastors if I hadn’t started immediately to make a specific plan of how to get there.
Churches are extremely vulnerable to procrastinating about making a plan. Every church needs a plan. People feel comfortable when they know the plan and how it works. Too many churches are late in planning. The church is good at “locking the barn after the horse is out.”
Airplanes can never take off without a flight plan. The flight plan has to be submitted before the plane takes off. The pilot knows the plan and shares with the passengers what they need to know.
- The plan must be specific, but be open to necessary changes.
While a plan is essential, it isn’t written in stone. When an airplane is flying and encounters a storm, it has to alter its flight plan to avoid a turbulent ride or a dangerous storm.
- It must be God’s plan. Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a plan that seems right to many, but its end is destruction.” Proverbs 16:1 says, “We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in God’s hands.” Proverbs 16:9 reminds us that we have to make our plans, but we ask the Lord to direct us in carrying out those plans.
Jeremiah repeatedly warned the people that their plan was not God’s plan, and it would not work. It’s sad to see that the people would not listen and constantly decided to follow their own foolish plan. Deciding against God’s plan is always a poor choice. Whose plan is America following?
God said to Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for your good and not for your disaster. They are plans to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) Be sure that you see your need for a plan, and plan now, and be sure that it’s God’s plan that you follow.
Where you wind up in life is not because of future decisions, but because of the future of your present decisions. Your present choices determine your future consequences. God’s purpose for your life is revealed and experienced as you follow God’s plan!
