Here are a few things that have always helped me with making plans for the future. The first one is holding myself accountable and checking in every 6 months and evaluating my progress and my health. What it looks like isn't rigid, it's just a self-check. Asking questions like, Am I on track for said goal, looking at timelines. Asking if is there anything needed that I'm not doing or missing something. It may require a professional's eyes to gain better insight in order to move forward. It doesn't mean every step will be perfect, but it means if we mess up we have a safe place to fall and we will be less likely to fail hard, and there's less room for error.
But beyond the educated and formal aspects of planning the most important step is turning to Father God and committing my plans to him. The Lord wants to partner with us, so when we give our lives and plans to him he will establish them and help us succeed. Going at it alone can be stressful and if it's not blessed by him, it may not be what he has for us, or we could be blind-sighted by the enemy's plans for us (because he has them), 1 Peter 5:8 says, Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion looking for whom he may devour. So making prayerful considerations is one of the best first steps in planning. He wants you happy, and he wants you to succeed!
1. Making plans and committing them to God
Proverbs 16:3
And the Lord wants to partner with us. So when we commit what we're doing to the Lord, he establishes our plans.
2. Growing in Grace
2 Peter 3:18
“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now into the day of eternity. Amen."
That means that Jesus didn't come to the Earth with a preset conditioning of how to be graceful. He came to earth, and he grew just like we did. He grew in grace and favor with God and man. It's a process, and he knows that.
3. Diligence and Rest
The plans of the diligent lead to profit. Proverbs 21:5.
This was a good one for me because, a lot of times, diligence is not my friend. It really is a challenging thing to learn to be a stewarding person for our time.
You know, stewarding our time may be more difficult than any other thing that we steward now. We also have to remember to steward our rest because we can get into perfectionist cycles that don't encourage us to move forward.
A lot of times, we need much more rest than we're giving ourselves. But if we're diligent to put our plans before the Lord and if we're diligent to keep working on the things that God's giving us to do, the things that we're excited about, the God-Sized dreams that are in your life; he is going to cause those things to lead to profit. And he really causes them to be profitable not only financially, which is what we normally think of, but it also causes us to be profitable in our spiritual life.
I think I have a secret, and that secret is this. I think a God-sized dream is actually one of the most profitable ways for us to grow in our spiritual walk. If we have a God-sized dream, it's forcing us out of our comfort zones, and it's forcing us to think and do things we rarely do.
And so God says dreams are really important for us to move towards, and if we're diligent about him, it's definitely going to lead to a profitable end.
4. Perseverance
Hebrews 10:35-36
“So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you'll receive what he has promised.”
This is really a cool verse. Do not throw away your confidence.
What's that speaking about? To me, that speaks about the faith that we have as we’re moving forward and are God-sized dreams that God will reward us. And when we persevere in that, and we've done the will of God, we will receive the things that he has promised us. Sometimes the promises of God over our lives take a month, a year, five years, or 10 years. 20. Here, some promises of my life still haven't come to pass, but I know he is faithful, and I will receive what he has promised me and the same thing for you.
So, I pray that in all your endeavors God will show you how to manage your plans and that by giving them to him first, that you will prosper in greater ways. I pray that you give yourself patience and time to rest as we can't go at life and have big success and ideas when we are tired. Have fun with the plans you have in front of you and I pray the ideas come in dreams and fill your mind with much happiness and joy! God bless you all and each of your families.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11.