What I would like to do here is to try to persuade you to set aside time each week in the coming year to plan—and specifically to plan your life of prayer and devotion and ministry. The bulldozer of God’s Spirit often arrives at the scene of our heart ready to begin some great work of building, and he finds that due to poor planning there are piles of disordered things in his way. We’re not ready for him.
Proverbs 6:6–7: “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her food in summer, and gathers her sustenance in harvest.”
The ant is an example not only because it works so hard, but also because it plans ahead. It takes thought in summer that there will be need in winter, and this forethought provides its needs in winter.
Proverbs 14:15: “The simple believes everything, but the prudent looks where he is going.”
The difference between planning and not planning is whether you look where you are going in the future or whether you focus all your attention on the immediate right in front of you. If you are not a planner, then you will be at the mercy of others who try to give you counsel about how to act now so as to be happy in the future.
So “the simple believes everything, but the prudent looks where he is going.” He considers the days to come and what they are bringing and thinks about how best to prepare for them and use them to accomplish his purposes.
Proverbs 15:22: “Without counsel plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed.”
Here the wisdom of planning is taken for granted, and the writer simply gives us advice for how to make plans that succeed. He says, Don’t be so independent that you think yourself above counsel. Read the wisdom of others who have gone before you. Talk to experienced and wise people. Watch the way others do things and learn from their mistakes and successes.
Proverbs 16:3: “Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.”
Again planning is taken for granted and the issue is: How can you plan in such a way that what you produce will have abiding value and not just pass away overnight? Answer: Commit it to the Lord. That is, always seek the Lord’s guidance and strength in your planning. Trust his wisdom and not your own. Then your plans will bear fruit that stays.
Proverbs 24:27: “Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for you in the field; and after that build your house.”
This probably means that it is important to be able to support yourself by the productivity of the field before you establish your own household. Perhaps we would say to a young person today: get a job before you get married. Or at least plan how you are going to support the new household you are establishing.
Proverbs 31:15–16: “She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and tasks for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.”
Here the model homemaker is a model planner in two ways. She gets up early and assigns tasks to her maids. You cannot assign tasks to your maids if you have no plan about what you would like to be accomplished that day. And she considers a field and buys it. What does she consider? She considers how it will fit into the plan of the household.
Conclusion from the Proverbs: Careful planning is part of what makes a person wise and productive. Not to plan is considered foolish and dangerous. This is true even though the Proverbs teach that we do not know what the future may bring. “A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). The fact that the Lord is ultimately in control of the future does not mean we shouldn’t plan. It means we should commit our work to the Lord and trust him to establish our plans according to his loving purposes.
Speaking of planning, here are some more ways to join us for the One-Year Bible Challenge that started yesterday: