Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!
We talked about resolutions in an earlier article and whether or not they are God centered. I think of resolutions as things that you have made a determined, unstoppable commitment to do. Plans are similar in the fact that you are stating something that you want to achieve and involves a particular strategy but may be more flexible in how you go about it. And we are still in that place in the year where we tend to reflect on the past year and make plans for the year ahead.
I’ve been reading about how to plan for next year in the secular world of “brilliant” advice. Much of what I have read suggests that our planning should be on things that you can do that focuses on our long term well-being. Well, that sounds reasonable. Sadly however, the secular world knows nothing about the fact that our greatest well-being is rooted in the Christian’s relationship and walk with the Lord.
The other thing that I have seen repeated in the articles that I have read is the suggestion that you first analyze your own behavior to determine the things you value and then construct your future plans around those values. One writer asks, “can we even know our values? Insofar as our values are undefined and vague, we need to know the options for making them more specific. Again, self-examination is not a bad thing at all, but self-examination in a life without God excludes the things of life that are truly valuable, namely a life in Christ, and the Christian’s values are graciously given to us by God in His Word. It’s not a ball of confusion!
Why even have a plan? We plan because we know that we will give an account not only for every word that we have spoken, but every minute that God gives us and how we used the tools and talents that He has given us. God has given us work to do and we are not to be like the sluggard of Proverbs 24:30-33. Planning is a good and wise thing to do but there are several things that we need to be on guard against.
First, we need to ask ourselves if our plans are aligned with the revealed will of God?
Years ago, I met with a man who was extremely stressed about wanting to go into ministry full time but didn’t know if it was God’s will that He should do so. Should he try to make it happen? How could he know God’s will? And if God didn’t want it to happen, what might be the negative consequences that he would experience?
I appreciated his concern to not offend God, but I believe it was unwarranted. Based on the many passages in scripture that call all of God’s people to be concerned first about growing the Kingdom of God, a desire to be in full time ministry was clearly in the revealed will of God. However, there is no way to know if God intended to put this particular man in full time ministry at this particular time or ever. This is where we can move forward with our plan and rest in Proverb 16:9 where it says, The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.
This proverb tells us that planning is something that we should do, but our sovereign God lovingly orchestrates whether the plan will come to fruition as He sees fit. And Spurgeon adds this thought from his devotional citing Isaiah 58:11 : “There are no dilemmas out of which you will not be delivered if you live near to God and your heart is kept warm with holy love. You will not go astray in the company of God. Like Enoch, walk with God, and you cannot miss your road. You have infallible wisdom to direct you, unchangeable love to comfort you, and eternal power to defend you. “The LORD”—mark the word—”the LORD will guide you continually.”
But while the gentleman that I met with was pursuing something that was pleasing to God based on Bible based precepts, it is too easy for Christians to plan things that are not pleasing to the Lord. Paul, found it necessary to writing to the Ephesian church and admonish them to remember that they are not to think and live like they did when they were not believers. There is no part of our lives, including our plans, that should be ruled by our lusts, assuming you do actually belong to Christ. From chapter 4:17-24, Paul writes:
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
So, you must ask yourself if your plans are Christian or pagan, and does the way you will go about executing your plan incorporate precepts and principles that you have learned from the Bible? For example:
Do you have plans to deal with a difficult situation or person?
Do you have plans to grow your wealth?
Do you have plans to become healthier?
Do you have plans to be more of a servant?
On the surface, there is nothing wrong with each of those plans, but there is also an opportunity for sinful motives and sinful means. You must prayerfully examine your heart.
Another major concern for the Christian is whether or not your plans explicitly or implicitly reveal that you are presuming that God agrees with your plan and will make it happen.
God hates that kind of attitude because it ignores the fact that He is sovereign over every molecule in the universe and it is Him, and only Him, Who decides what will and will not happen. In essence, a person who is making plans without a proper understanding of God’s involvement, is putting themselves in the place of God. Listen to James writing in James, chapter 4:
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 mistthat 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.
Boasting is born out of pride and God hates pride. Earlier in James 4:6, God says, Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Should we make plans for 2023? Yes, but when we make plans presuming that God will bless, we show our pride, and provoke God to prevent whatever plans we made. Do we really want to be in the position of God being against us?
By the way, it is important for us to understand that even the plans that God is pleased to bless may include trials and tribulations. It is a very difficult truth to accept but if we understand that everything that God brings into our lives is for our good and His glory, even plans that take us through trials should still cause us to bless God’s name. This is what makes the Christian life different from the Pagan. When things become difficult for the Pagan, he becomes angry and frustrated and unhappy. But if the Christian is thinking correctly, he knows that God has willed difficulties for him because the Christian is being molded into the image of Christ. This allows the Christian to lead a joy-filled life regardless of his circumstances.
As we think about planning, you can see how easily we can offend our gracious God in the process. Certainly, no true Christian would say that our agenda for our life is above God’s agenda, but we would have to admit that our behavior often does not fit with our theology and constant adjustments to our thinking must be made. This is why understanding sin and how we are to react to the truth of sin is so critical.
So, I’ll wrap with this- What are the plans you have for your children in 2023? Have you thought about it and if so, are you making plans that align with God’s clearly revealed will that you raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4)? And regarding your personal plans, are you calculating any ripple effects on your marriage and children? It’s a lot to think about and I encourage you to think deeply.
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Last modified: December 30, 2022
