Word To The Wise: Make Your Plans With God In Mind!

We make all kinds of plans in life.  A plan for lunch.  A plan for the weekend.  Summer plans.  A plan for our future.  A game plan.  Short term plans.  Long term plans.  Strategic plans.  Our culture is obsessed with the idea that, “if we fail to plan, we plan to fail.”  Having a plan is closely tied to our “goals” and the things we want to accomplish in life.  A plan defines what we are going to be doing and the details of how we are going to do it at any given time.  A plan steers us in the direction we want to go in our lives.  A plan often expresses our priorities, what we value, and the things that are most important to us in life.  There is nothing wrong with making a plan in life, but our plan must include something greater than our own personal wants, desires, interests, ideas or agenda.

READ:  Proverbs 16:9

Here’s our WORD TO THE WISE for the week from the book of Proverbs:  Make Your PLANS With God In Mind!  God has given us the freedom to make our own plans.  All the plans of our lives come from a simple desire which originates in our heart.  Freedom to make plans is exactly what we want because we want to control the direction of our own lives.  We cherish the freedom to make plans because we want to be the ruler of our own existence.  And yet, our plans are woefully inadequate because they are always tainted by selfishness and sin.  The only way for our plans to be redeemed is to allow God to make our plans for us!  In our hearts, we must want God’s plan for our lives.  We must trust that whatever God’s plan is for our lives is the best possible option.  How do we keep God in mind while we are making our plans?

The Lord is intimately AWARE of our plans (Proverbs 5:21) – God knows everything about our plans.  As we go about making plans for our day, our week, our month, our life, God is watching and He sees and knows exactly what we are doing.  Our plans are not hidden or a mystery to Him.  Not only does God know our plans, but more importantly He knows our selfish and sinful motivation for why we a making those plans.  This knowledge should encourage us to make plans that we would not be ashamed of Him knowing about and would be pleasing to Him (Romans 8:5-8).  In order to avoid the shame of the fact that “God knows”, it would be wise to make plans that He not merely agrees with, but pursue plans that He’s already made for us!

The Lord has a PURPOSE in His plans for us that NEVER CHANGES (Proverbs 19:21) – Our plans are like a piece of trash being blown around in the wind, constantly shifting and changing directions.  The chaos and confusion of our life’s circumstances cause us to continually change our plans.  In contrast, God’s plans for our life are like a mountain, grounded firmly on an immovable eternal purpose that He has for us.  No matter how much the circumstances of our lives change, God’s plans for us will “stand” firm.  Our plans may change or fail, but God’s purpose will remain the same and always be accomplished.  Therefore, we must never put confidence in our own plans, but rather, in the glorious plans that have been revealed to us by God (Jeremiah 29:11).

The Lord will ESTABLISH our plans if we COMMIT them to Him (Proverbs 16:3) – It’s easy to identify someone who’s making plans with God in mind.  When they talk about “their” plans, they speak in terms like, “I feel like God is leading me to . . .”, or “I sense that it is God’s will that I . . .”  This language signals a desire to make plans with God’s plan and purpose for our life in mind and not just our own.  Jesus expressed it best in Luke 22:42 when praying about enduring His Father’s wrath on the cross by saying, “not my will, but yours, be done.”  Making plans starts with the question, “Lord, what are YOUR plans for my life?”  The motivation of our heart must be to “commit” everything we do to the Lord and allow God to “establish” the plans for our life (Eph. 6:7; Col. 3:17, 23).

CONCLUSION:

James 4:13-17 says, “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”.  We must trust the Lord with the plans of our lives and humbly give Him the authority to guide and direct us according to His good, acceptable, and perfect will (Romans 12:2).  Ultimately, making plans with God in mind means wanting nothing less than God’s plans to be our plans!

Word To The Wise: Be a Faithful Friend

Facebook has blurred our understanding of a friend.  According to Facebook, friendship with someone is obtained by a mere click of a blue “confirm” button.  We can have hundreds or thousands of “friends” with little or no commitment to a real relationship!  The number of Facebook friends that we have has become a social competition to display our superior likability.  According to Facebook I currently have 1,059 “friends”.  Don’t get me wrong, I have actually met and personally know all of the individuals I am Facebook friends with, but only a small few do I share a close personal connection with.  In our fast paced and superficial culture, we have lost the meaning, significance, and hard work that are required to experience true friendship.  Proverbs provides us with a reminder of the weight of true friendship.

READ:  Proverbs 17:17, 18:24

Here’s our WORD TO THE WISE for the week from the book of Proverbs:  Be a Faithful FRIEND!  Friendship is more than a superficial association with someone.  Friendship is more than feeling comfortable saying, “hey” as we pass someone in the hallway.  Friendship is more than sharing similar interests/hobbies, personality, or sense of humor with someone.  According to Proverbs, a true friend is someone who, “loves at all times”, and “sticks closer than a brother”.  The word “love” (אָהַב = ahab) means to have a, “deep genuine feeling of care or concern” for someone.  The phrase “sticks closer” means to, “remain in close relation by being faithful and loyal”.  Therefore, friendship is an inseparable companionship between individuals who share a deep affection for one another.  What are some ways Proverbs suggests we can be a faithful friend? 

A faithful friend is GENEROUS (Prov. 19:6) – Giving a gift is a voluntary act of kindness where we give something that we possess to someone else.  Giving a gift to someone communicates that they are valuable or important to us!  There are lots of ways we can be generous in our friendships.  We can be generous with our TIME by offering the free hours of our day to be with someone.  We can be generous with our TALENTS by offering our unique skill or ability to help accomplish a task or project with someone.  We can be generous with our TREASURE by giving our money or possessions to someone who is in need.  Generosity should not be used as means of manipulation, but as a way to display our genuine care and concern for others (Matt. 7:11; Luke 11:13).  Remember, friendship is more about what we give in relationship than what we get in return!

A faithful friend offers HONEST CRITICISM (Proverbs 27:6) – Most of us would not consider someone a friend if they were constantly reminding us of our imperfections.  But it would be cruel if a friend only flattered us with praise and never warned us about doing things that were embarrassing or self-destructive.  Nobody likes criticism, but we should all have someone in our lives who is not afraid to evaluate our attitudes, actions, and words with honesty and kindness.  An “enemy” may appear to be friendly by their abundant praise and “kisses” (Mt. 26:49), while a “faithful friend” may appear to be an enemy by the verbal “wounds” they inflict (Mt 23:11-28).  There are times when honest criticism is a more genuine expression of friendship than flattering words.

A faithful friend provides wise ADVICE (Proverbs 27:9) – Have you ever been near someone with body odor?  It is not an enjoyable experience.  Most of us would prefer to be around someone who uses deodorant or perfume and smells good.  A friend who provides “earnest counsel” is as sweet as a beautiful fragrance emanating from “oil and perfume”.  No one possesses all wisdom and so we need counsel and advice from friends to make godly decisions.  In other words, don’t make decisions independent of others, the decision, and therefore you, will stink!

CONCLUSION:

In John 15:12-13 Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”.  There is no greater display of friendship than laying our lives down for the sake of a friend . . . which is exactly what Jesus did for his disciples and for us . . . making Him the only one worthy of being considered our best friend!