Four Biblical Laws

When I was younger, I loved playing baseball. I especially loved pitching. Today, as the father of three boys who all pitch, I love sitting under the sunny skies of Scottsdale, Arizona, watching my boys take the mound for year-round baseball.

If you know much about baseball, you know that there are multiple kinds of pitchers. Some are left handed, others are right handed. Some throw fast, others slow. Some can pitch many innings, others are only good for a few batters.

A good coach takes all the pitchers and puts them together into something called a bullpen. The coach then calls in each pitcher to meet the needs of a specific situation during the game. Why? Because a bullpen is far more effective than just one pitcher.

In life, you are a coach. What you need is a bullpen. This is more than a mentor. I believe that having a mentor is actually a myth. There is no one person who can help you get through every situation of your life. As you make plans for your life, it is good to assemble a bullpen of specialists – various people who are wise at finances, marriage, parenting, health, business, legal, theology, and so on, respectively. When you need them, you can then call them in to your life to help you get through whatever you are facing without wearing one person out to be there for you all the time.

The Bible speaks of this kind of a bullpen as wise counsel. Proverbs 13:20 says it this way, “Walk with the wise and become wise,” and Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Also, Proverbs 24:5–6 says, “The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength. Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers.”  

How can you benefit from wise counsel to help you make your plan for this year? To start, Proverbs 12:15 teaches us to listen and learn: “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” Here are some very practical things to consider to maximize your bullpen of wise counselors:

Prayerfully and carefully choose wise counsel
Formally schedule a time with them at their convenience
Show up prepared, with your questions and a way to write down what you learn
Listen and learn – do not say a lot
Ask them for any resources you could use for further study
Thank them
Pray for them before leaving
Act on their instruction
Send a follow-up thank you
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.

When I was younger, I loved playing baseball. I especially loved pitching. Today, as the father of three boys who all pitch, I love sitting under the sunny skies of Scottsdale, Arizona, watching my boys take the mound for year-round baseball.

If you know much about baseball, you know that there are multiple kinds of pitchers. Some are left handed, others are right handed. Some throw fast, others slow. Some can pitch many innings, others are only good for a few batters.

A good coach takes all the pitchers and puts them together into something called a bullpen. The coach then calls in each pitcher to meet the needs of a specific situation during the game. Why? Because a bullpen is far more effective than just one pitcher.

In life, you are a coach. What you need is a bullpen. This is more than a mentor. I believe that having a mentor is actually a myth. There is no one person who can help you get through every situation of your life. As you make plans for your life, it is good to assemble a bullpen of specialists – various people who are wise at finances, marriage, parenting, health, business, legal, theology, and so on, respectively. When you need them, you can then call them in to your life to help you get through whatever you are facing without wearing one person out to be there for you all the time.

The Bible speaks of this kind of a bullpen as wise counsel. Proverbs 13:20 says it this way, “Walk with the wise and become wise,” and Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Also, Proverbs 24:5–6 says, “The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength. Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers.”  

How can you benefit from wise counsel to help you make your plan for this year? To start, Proverbs 12:15 teaches us to listen and learn: “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” Here are some very practical things to consider to maximize your bullpen of wise counselors:

Prayerfully and carefully choose wise counsel
Formally schedule a time with them at their convenience
Show up prepared, with your questions and a way to write down what you learn
Listen and learn – do not say a lot
Ask them for any resources you could use for further study
Thank them
Pray for them before leaving
Act on their instruction
Send a follow-up thank you
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.

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.

Some years ago, I was travelling with someone during the winter. Our trip started in sunny Southern California, then continued on to windy and snowy Illinois. Unfortunately, my travelling partner was so excited about going to California that he forgot to pack for the winter weather in Illinois. I was humored when he was trying to hike over a snow bank with freezing feet because the only shoes he packed were flip-flops.

This is the law of seasons. The same God who made the natural world with seasons has also woven seasons into our life. When we do not pay attention to and honor the season, we end up making life more painful and difficult than it should be. This is what Proverbs 20:4 means: “Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing.” 

God wants your life, year after year starting this year, to be like a healthy tree that honors the seasons and flourishes. This is what Psalm 1:1–3 means:

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”

As we honor the seasons of life and dig our roots into healthy circumstances and relationships, our life becomes fruitful year after year.

When we fail to recognize that our entire life, and each year of our life, has seasons, we become confused and frustrated. Something that used to work, no longer works. What used to deliver positive results, no longer does. In this way, the flip-flops that were perfect for the summer become a problem in the winter.

How do you know when the season of your life is changing? Transition. When a major life transition comes, you are leaving one season and entering into another season of life. Consider your life. Have you recently experienced any of these seasonal transitions?

Divorce
Death of a Spouse
Death of Parent or Child
Relocation
Job/Career Change
Bankruptcy
Major Job Loss
Illness (Personal or a Close Family Member)
Empty Nest
If any of these transitions, or others like them, are part of your life, you need a plan for the next season of life, which we will consider in the next devotional entry.

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.