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I am a type A personality. I love to make plans of all I am going to accomplish for the day. Every week almost without exception, I write a todo list for the weekend. My inner control freak gets a bit of a sense of accomplishment, when everything on my todo list completed. On the other hand it gives me a great deal of anxiety when my list doesn't get completed. When this happens I start a new list for the next week and move that item to the top of my list. What does the bible have to say about making plans for the future?
James 4: 13-16 ESV Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
My difficult question to you is this, do I make plans for my days or is my highly structured possibly, OCD todo list a sin? After all, according to God's word I do not know what tomorrow will bring for me. If you think about it, God is a planner. In Genesis 1:26, we hear the Trinity say, let us make man in our image, in our likeness. That sounds to me like the God head is making plans for the future. But God doesn’t just make plans for himself, like I do. He laid out his plans to both Moses and Joshua Exodus 3 and Joshua 6. He had detailed instructions for how the nation of Israel was to worship Him Leviticus. He has written out every day of our lives as well.
Psalm 139:16 HCSB Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.
God is the one who is in control and in charge. He has determined the beginning and the ending. He has placed us in our various roles in His Story. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan. Even though God has already determined our future, it doesn’t mean that He will give us all the details. You must daily pray and spend time in God's word and He will reveal to you His plans, but He doesn't hand us all the details. He assumes we will plan too, counting the cost, and affirms the wisdom of His plans. It is an awareness that even if I am not the one in charge, I am still responsible! I am not in charge of my own destiny, but I will need to answer to God on how I have managed what He has given me. When we take the time to plan, we are living proactively. However, we need to remember that when we make plans, there are some guidelines we should follow when making those plans. First, our plans need to reflect God's purposes. Secondly, our plans need to bring glory to God. And lastly, we need to commit our plans to God so that he may establish them.
Proverbs 19:21 ESV Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
We are saved be the grace of God to do His good will. Doing good works instead of flying by the seat of our pants, hoping that we’ll get to it sometime. I say to things to myself as much as I am to those who may hear me. Make sure that your plans include God and bring glory to God and don't forget to take advantage of the opportunities at hand when they arise, even if they don't happen to be on your todo list or according to your plans for the day. Remember God is in control even when it feels like life is out of control!
