13th June 2024
Commit your plans to the Lord
This is the eleventh in a series of studies on the subject of prayer
Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
Proverbs 16:3 (NIVUK)
Some people make plans without giving much thought to them. Even worse, some Christians make plans without consulting God. Our header scripture advises us to surrender our plans to the Lord, yet so often we forge ahead, make plans, establish agendas, cast visions, but leave God out of the picture. It is so easy to race ahead without so much as a thought for God’s input.
As the writer of Proverbs says, ‘To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.’ (Proverbs 16:1). We must commit our plans to God in prayer and listen for his answer. If we don’t lay our plans before God, the way forward will be difficult and may in the end prove futile.
In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus provides some thoughts to ponder when we are planning our tomorrows, concluding with: ‘…do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ (v. 34).
Planning for tomorrow is time well spent; worrying about tomorrow is time wasted. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference. Careful planning is thinking ahead about goals, steps, and schedules, and trusting in God’s guidance as we pray about them. When done well, planning can help alleviate worry. Worriers, by contrast, are consumed with fear and find it difficult to trust God. They let their plans interfere with their relationship with God. Don’t let worries about tomorrow affect your relationship with God today. As James says, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:13-17).
Careful planning should include prayer and submission to God’s will. It is good to have goals, but goals will disappoint us if we leave God out of them. There is no point in making plans as though God does not exist, because the future is in his hands.
What would you like to be doing five years from now? One year from now? Tomorrow? How will you react if God steps in and rearranges your plans? Let’s plan ahead but hold our plans loosely.
Put prayer and God’s desires at the centre of your planning; he will never disappoint you.
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you for another day to serve you. We lay the plans we have made at your feet because you know best. If these are the things you want us to do, please give us the energy and focus to get them done, trusting you for the outcomes. If you have other plans for us, change ours to conform to your plans for us, as we pray your will, not mine. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Study by Barry Robinson
About the writer:
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International and Regional Pastor for Southern England, the Midlands, and Wales
Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA
Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm
Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church