Proverbs 16:1-3 (GNT)
We may make our plans, but God has the last word. You may think everything you do is right, but the Lord judges your motives. Ask the Lord to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them out.
How can you plan for a successful year? Do you work on personal and work goals? Do you put the ‘big rocks’ in first? Many people start with holidays, then figure out the rest. Sounds like an excellent idea.
Next Saturday our new church Council and staff meet to plan and pray for the coming year. We will work on goals and big rocks for the life of our church. We did this last year and on reflection the year roughly tracked as we hoped. Roughly. There were goals that are easy to know if we achieved. Have we employed a youth Pastor? Tick. Yey! How about ‘building deeper community relationships’? Hmm. I think this is a work in progress. Many ‘Big Rock’ events/ideas we accomplished, yet there were many we did not anticipate. The year had a lot of surprises.
Clearly, there is a lot of unpredictability in a year. I certainly found this personally. So, why bother planning? There is that adage, ‘If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time’. Planning gives us the opportunity to hit something. Planning brings people into the conversation regarding our preferred future. This strengthens our work together. A plan focusses and aligns us, especially in unpredictable environments. Note, it may not matter what the goals are, the process itself is helpful.
Proverbs 16 tells us, God is the key to successful planning. In this, our motives matter. God is more concerned with our hearts than our goals. When we are humble, loyal and faithful to God here is an incredible promise: share your plans with the Lord and you will succeed. Note, it may not matter what the goals are, relationship with God is what brings success. Take this away as you plan your year: plan with prayer. Then we draw close to God. We seek God to shape us, so we can shape our future. To this plan God brings success.
Enjoy,
Jason