Looking at life as God does is an exciting way to live. Like Jesus, we must plan our lives in complete dependence upon God. Our plans need to reflect God's character and His will for us.
How to include God:
- Submit to God's sovereignty. This must be the starting point for all your planning. Making plans without submitting them for His review, correction, and approval is an act of arrogance on your part that God will not let go unchallenged.
- Know that you are dependent. Everything you do depends on someone else. For example, if you make plans to fly to a certain city on a certain day and take care of some business, those plans depend on the airlines, the weather, the business climate, and a lot of other things you can't control. You are also dependent on God.
- Rely on God's infinite knowledge. After all, He knows the end from the beginning. God knows what you don't know. He sees every factor, takes into consideration all possibilities, and gives you the best option. God will show you the best route. You may see many possible courses of action, but from His perspective God sees the best path for you to travel through life.
- Defer to God's will as you plan. You need to say, Lord, these are my plans, but I subject them to Your will because You are infinitely greater than I am. Since God's will for you is the expression of His infinitely perfect plan, you won't go wrong submitting your plans to Him. But if you leave God out, you may miss out on some blessing He wanted to send your way. You may also miss out on His protection from some danger if you are fixated on what you want.
- God wants you to know His will. He wants you to test and prove His will. If you have a growing, intimate relationship with God, He is going to let you in on what He's doing with your life. He may bring you into situations that you never dreamed possible.
- Honor God's holiness as you plan. The way you plan you life is a matter not just of intelligence or convenience, but a matter of holiness. To plan apart from God is sin. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin (James 4:16-17). God is clear: Godless planning is not just bad planning - it is sinful, unholy planning.
From The Perfect Christian by Tony Evans, copyright (c) 1998. Used by permission of Word Publishing, Nashville, Tenn., 1-800-933-9673. All rights reserved.
Dr. Tony T. Evans is senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative, a ministry that promotes the application of Scripture to bring about spiritual change in the community through the church. He is the author of What a Way to Live! and featured speaker on the radio broadcast The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans.