“I’m just going to trust in God and let Him work it out. I know He has it all under control.”
I think most of us have all heard someone say the above, or words to that effect. While such a statement is filled with piety and seems like it is consistent with the Bible, that’s not necessarily the case. While God is in control, and that all things are possible with Him, and while it’s true that God has our best interests in heart, it is also true that God doesn’t call us to a life of fatalism.
“But doesn’t James teach we shouldn’t plan ahead?” Look again and in more detail about James’ words, and we see a different lesson.
“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, sped 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).
James’ point is there is nothing wrong with planning. In fact, it’s a prudent thing to do. The foolishness comes in not making provisions for God’s will in the planning or not taking into account that things await us in the future that may alter our plans, or thwart them all together.
The Bible says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). It also says, “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice” (Proverbs 12:15). The point of these two verses gives us an idea of planning. Sometimes, we think we have the greatest ideas, but then we put them into practice and it all falls apart. Prudent planning requires the input of others and wise counsel from those with experience in the area of planning as well as an awareness of who and what we are.
In my first pastorate, I’d come up with a brilliant idea, one that I thought would greatly benefit the church. I would share my thoughts with one of my church members, but he had the annoying habit of asking, “Why?” As in, why do you think we should do this, why do you think it would work, why do you want to do this? These questions would stop me in my tracks, and I began to learn that it’s important to not just have an idea, but also formulate a plan.
Churches are interesting places. We get together for Bible study, worship and fellowship, and we try to do things that we believe will get the gospel out into the community and the world. But often times, we fall into a rut. We get together for Bible Study/Sunday School at a certain time of the day, usually mid-morning on a Sunday, then we have worship. Our worship service follows the same format each Sunday, with only small variations on occasion. We support ministries that we’ve done since our grandparents were young people at the church, and we never question the why or what we are doing. When asked, “Why are we having Vacation Bible School this year,” for instance, the question is met with a perplexed look of shock and concern, and the answer is, “Because we’ve always done VBS at this time of the year.” In other words, we often do church in a particular way at a particular time because it’s expected of us.
There’s nothing wrong with looking at a new church year and asking what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. It may be that our resources could better be used in a different endeavor, or maybe we could tweak the current programs to better convey the purpose of the programs. In other words, churches should be involved in planning, both long range and short range. The prudent church prayerfully considers where God is leading them, and earnestly seeks Him out. But it also is prudent to make plans according to where believe God is directing us.
For individuals planning, it’s important to ask the questions, as well. And it is always important that we keep God at the forefront of the planning. “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord” (Proverbs 16:2). “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed” (Proverbs 16:3).
Looking at the life of Joseph shows us a life that is seemingly unplanned. As a young boy, he makes his brothers so jealous of him that they seriously plot to kill him. Ultimately deciding to sell him into slavery, Joseph is taken to Egypt. While there, he becomes the slave of a man who recognizes God’s blessings on Joseph and puts him in charge of the other slaves, particularly in his household. Joseph is a loyal slave, and soon the master’s wife takes a liking to him. One day her flirtations advance to the point that she grabs him to “have her way with him.” He manages to escape, leaving his outer garment in her hands. When the husband returns, she tells him Joseph tried to rape her. As a result, Joseph is thrown into prison.
While in prison, Joseph interprets dreams for two fellow prisoners, and they both promise to remember Joseph should they get out. The two men do find freedom, one by being executed, the other reinstated in his role as a servant to Pharaoh. Unfortunately for Joseph, the promise of mentioning Joseph to Pharaoh fades, and Joseph spends a much longer time in prison, until one day, Pharaoh has a dream that no one can interpret.
It is at this time the servant remembers Joseph, and he informs Pharaoh. Pharaoh tells his dream to Joseph, and Joseph, by God’s revelation, accurately interprets the dream. The reward is that Joseph is made the second most powerful man in the kingdom.
A famine sweeps the area, and Joseph’s brothers are sent to Egypt to seek food and help. Never in a million years expecting to see the brother they sold so long ago, and certainly not in a position of such great authority, the brothers fail to recognize Joseph. After some events transpire, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, sends for his father and the rest of the family and settles them in a favorable part of Egypt.
In no part of Joseph’s life, had we asked him, would he have said he planned for all this. No, what Joseph did was place his trust in God, and God brought Joseph to the point where he could be used most by God. Even then, based upon God’s revelation to Joseph about Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph made detailed plans for the years of plenty and the years of famine. When the promised famine came, Egypt survived because Joseph had a plan and he implemented it.
The point of the story is that we can make plans, and our plans may seem good and right and moral, but plans without God at the beginning and infused through the planning will the plans fully succeed.
In Luke 12, Jesus tells the parable of a man who had great success. The man was a farmer, and he had a bumper crop that filled his storage areas to overflowing. The man considered what he should do. His plan was to tear down the current barns and build bigger ones. “And I will say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy: eat, drink and be merry’” (Luke 12:19). Jesus finishes the parable with, “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be for anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21).
What Jesus is saying to us through this parable is that our first priority must always be our relationship with God, and that all our plans must be placed in His hands in order to have success. The farmer in the parable would have made very different plans had he spent time in prayer with God. Rather than planning for his future, he would have planned for his family’s future.
Conclusion
Planning is an important and necessary part of life. A life lived without a plan is one that is haphazard at best.
The Bible teaches us, though, that our planning is all for naught if it does not include God in the details. Not, “Hey, God, here’s my plan. Would You put Your stamp on it?” Instead, it is, “Lord, show me what You have for me today, and guide me as I make my plans for the future. Knowing You alone knows what tomorrow brings, give me the wisdom to do as You lead me to, for Your glory and praise.”
© 2019 Glynn Beaty