If there is a spectrum that ranges from highly planned and organized to spontaneous and impulsive, then I am more on the spontaneous and impulsive side. Sometimes that is really fun, but the absence of planning can be really bad—like when I was traveling overseas and only took $4 in cash with me simply because I overlooked something important. It worked out okay because my husband asked me if I needed cash before I walked out the door.
I could tell you lots of stories about how I failed to plan and had to solve problems on the fly and experienced unnecessary stresses. On the other side, I know people who are highly organized and sometimes their plans still go awry.
Regardless of where we fall on the planning spectrum, we would be wise to keep God as an essential ingredient with our plans and spontaneity. Here are a few verses to digest in relation to planning:
- God’s plans ultimately prevail: Proverbs 19:21, “Many plans are in a man’s heart, But the counsel of the Lord will stand.”
- Always include God in your plans: Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.
- Trust in the goodness of God’s plans for you: Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
- Timing is an important ingredient for planning: Ecclesiastes 3:1, “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.”
- Include wise people when making plans: Proverbs 15:22, “Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.”
- God’s ways and plans are better than the best human planning: Isaiah 55:8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
- Life has seasons, and we can lean into God to know what season we are in: Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”
Feel free to take one or a few of these verses to pray every day, keep as the home screen on your phone, memorize and review at bedtime, etc. There are lots of ways to keep helpful Bible verses handy and accessible throughout your day. I am encouraging you in this because I don’t think that anyone or anything is more helpful with plans and strategies than God. Indeed, God is the Master Planner and Ultimate Designer! Let’s be sure to keep God as an essential ingredient in all of our plans!
