“Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” (Proverbs 16:3, ESV)
What gets the greater emphasis in life? Prayer or planning?
There are two extremes. On one extreme is to pray and leave all the results to God without doing anything. The other extreme is to plan without prayer. Both of these extremes are wrong.
Most of us lean towards one of the two extremes. Maybe you are more a prayer person, or maybe you are more a planning person. God does not call us to be one or the other. He calls us to be both – prayer people and planning people.
There is a balance. Pastor Mark Batterson says, “pray as if it depends upon God and work as if it depends on you.” This is the believer’s way of saying hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
God calls us to pray. God also calls us to plan. There is a balance. We start with prayer, but we don’t end with prayer. Sometimes there is a person who is going through a crisis. The advice that is given them is to just pray. But that advice may not seem all that helpful if they have been praying. God does not make us passive victims of fate in some cosmic battle that is waging. He has equipped us with the Holy Spirit. Yes, we are to pray, but then we are to take the courage and the faith that God gives to us in prayer and act upon it. Make plans and execute those plans. Yes, pray! But don’t stop with prayer.
But maybe you are not as much a prayer person as you are a planning person. You got a problem, so you make your plans. You seek your solution. And then you ask God to bless your plan. You ask God to provide your solution. It is good that you are planning, but the problem is that you are planning without prayer. Prayer is the afterthought.
An example where this plays out is when a person loses his job. He sets a plan to find a new job. And then he prays to God to help him get that new job. You see the starting point was finding the new job. The solution was automatically to become employed. That is our plan. That is our solution. And it might very well be God’s solution. But maybe the season of unemployment is to lead you in a different direction. Or maybe the time without a job is an opportunity to gain a new experience. But if we are so focused on our plans without prayer, we might miss the thing that God is doing.
Instead of first determining the solution, start by seeking God in prayer. See where he would lead and the solution he would determine. Our plans are not always God’s plan. And we will find it much easier to succeed when we go with God’s plan.
Pray first. Then plan. Pray again. Then execute the plan.
Reflection
- Do you give greater emphasis to prayer or with planning?
- Do you have something in your life where you have prayed, but failed to take action?
- Do you have plans that you need to set aside so you can seek God’s will?
Prayer
Lord, sometimes I am paralyzed to inaction. I bring you my worries and concerns. You speak faith and courage into my life, and then I fail to take action. There are other times when I rush ahead of you with my plans and fail to seek your voice. Forgive me for failing to pray. Forgive me for failing to plan. Grant me your Holy Spirit that I would have the wisdom to pray and to plan so that your will would be accomplished in my life and that your kingdom would come through my words and actions. Amen.
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