III. Right Plans

Someone once said “To fail to plan is to plan to fail”. Another one that I often quote is “blessed is the man who aims at nothing for he shall surely hit it”. As we launch out into a new calendar year and check our priorities and our focus, the next step is to check our plans.

I personally believe that Goals and plans are a huge help toward accomplishing anything. Consider your plans for 2004 in the following areas:

A) Walk with God-Plan and set goals in this vital area of your life, plan to start each day with the Lord and to pray and study more that you ever have before. God told Joshua “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”. (Joshua 1:8) This is the only time you will find the word success in the Scriptures. That should stress the importance of having personal devotions and Bible study. Please don’t shoot me for this next statement but I am not an advocate of striving to read your Bible through each year. Before you write me off as a heretic or a compromising liberal let me explain. First off, I do believe that there is great benefit to periodically reading your Bible straight through. But that being said, the danger I see of attempting to do that yearly is that often times people approach it and say “today I must read x number of chapters to stay on my plan”. They then sail through it, put an x on their chart and proclaim “I am Spiritual” meanwhile down in their heart, God has not meet with them and there is little understanding or retention of what is read. I know of one church that gave a way a Bible to the first person to read through his Bible in that year, and a man claimed the prize in early February. I have always wondered how little he retained and what became of his devotional life after his goal was reached.

Personally my devotional goal is the same daily: I want God to meet with me and I strive to get in the Word until he does, some days its spending time meditating on just a few verses, other days He leads me through a topical study and yet other days it is several chapters or even a book at times. I believe that what is important is not how many times you have been through the Bible but rather how many times the Bible has been through you.

The other important aspect of our walk with God is prayer, we should strive to pray every day, keep a list and keep it current, this will remind you what to pray for and as you mark off or highlight answered prayer it provides a visual reminder of God’s goodness and watch care over us.

B) Work for God- This is another area where goals are important. What ever it is that God has for you to do, be it a Sunday School class, Choir, youth group, Pastor or what ever should be done to the best of your ability. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest" (Ecclesiastes 9:10). We should strive to accomplish more this year than last year. There will be plenty of time in heaven for looking back and seeing how much we accomplished in previous years. While we are here and have the ability we need to press on. God told an aging Joshua “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed”. Strive to do more, strive to reach more, strive to grow more. Put the time and effort you could use to convince yourself and others why it can’t be done into getting something done and you will be amazed at what God can do.

Strive to start this year with the right priorities, focus and plans and you will be amazed at what you can get done with God’s help and for his Glory.

Because of Calvary,

David Iseminger

Romans 10:13-15