I just read a wonderful Proverb this morning in the Bible… So very true, and a healthy reminder…
“In their hearts humans plan the course of action for their lives, but it is the Lord that establishes their steps!” (Proverbs 16.9)
Are you a planner – a person who lives with a sense of mission, casts vision for the future, and then develops strategies to achieve your goals? Most of us admire that kind of person and attempt to be like them to some degree. They’re goal oriented people who do more than just talk about what they’d like to do it life – they take concrete steps to achieve their goals.
And then there are the other folks… they don’t have a clue! Every day for them is just getting up in the morning, putting in the hours, and attempting to react to whatever happens. The scope of their planning rarely moves beyond the next hour or the 24-hour period immediately before them. Planning a week ahead? That’s really pushing it!!
I have to say, I really want to be more like the first kind of person!!
As we get older, my wife and I have engaged in some serious conversations about plans for the next couple of years. We’ve come up with some conclusions about things we were going to plan and do – and the steps we’re going to take to fulfill those goals and plans… And then I get up this morning and read Proverbs 16.9!!!
I think before we do a final “sign off” of the strategies Sharon and I have agreed upon, we should probably do what the Bible says, and remember “it is the Lord that establishes our steps!” Seems to me I recall a few verses in James (more or less the “Proverbs” of the New Testament) that are important here… “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.’“ (James 4.13-15)
Coffee With The Lord 