The country you live in has founding documents that guide the decisions that are made for its citizens. The business you work for has vision, mission, and strategic plan to provide clear goals that all resources are positioned to achieve. The sports team you play on has clear rules and a method by which a score is kept and a winner is pronounced. Unfortunately, many—if not most—people, don’t really have any of these sorts of plans for their personal life. As decisions and opportunities arise, we just do our best to make a good decision. The problem is that such decisions are often made in isolation from the rest of life.
Jesus speaks of this very problem in Luke 14:28–32:
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”
What Jesus is appealing to is the Law of Planning. As the old adage goes, when we fail to plan we plan to fail!
When it comes to making a plan for your life and family, it is helpful to start with your priorities. I believe the following is a good guideline for our priorities:
- Relationship with God
- Relationship with Spouse
- Relationship with Children & Grandchildren
- Work
- Ministry
- Hobby
Two things happen when we have our life out of alignment from God’s priorities for us. First, God gets jealous. God does not like it when something like our job overtakes Him as the priority in our life. Second, the people in our life become jealous because someone or something has taken their place. Jealousy is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, jealousy is simply how a person rightly feels when someone or something else has taken their place as a priority. To help guard against this, we need a plan for our life that considers our priorities.
One of the greatest planners in the Bible is a man named Nehemiah. The books of Nehemiah and Esther are largely devoted to him making and implementing a plan for the urban renewal of the city of Jerusalem. Nehemiah did research, drew up specific construction and architecting plans, and had a budget, legal plan, public relations plan, security plan, travel plan, fundraising plan, business plan, ministry plan, and communications plan. Throughout the project, he prays, plans, and pivots. By praying, he gets his plan from God. In sharing his plan with others, he invites them to do their part in the plan. As circumstances changed, when needed, he pivoted from his plan.
This is a great example for you. Do you have a prayerful plan for your life?
At MarkDriscoll.org there is a special four-part series this month called Four Biblical Laws That Change Your Life, available for a gift of any amount. This brand-new content is a series of lectures and accompanying homework by Pastor Mark Driscoll to help you make this a godly and great year, by God’s grace.