It's Tuesday
Morning. Sun is coming up. Time for action.
Time for a plan.
Yesterday is past.
Today is here.
Planning is not always easy.
Yesterday was interrupted with a couple of phone calls from outside my circle. Nothing to do with family or church. Phone calls that made no sense. Irritating. Disrupting. Messing up plans.
How does the devil think up some things? Puzzles me.
But the day was done. Time to meditate. Read the Bible. Rest. Focus.
Time to revise the list of yesterday’s things not done. Time to decide that some things on yesterday’s list were not important enough to do, and those items just get marked off.
Other things keep coming. It is apparent I will not have time to get all information together to file taxes for my brother’s estate or my own personal taxes. Thus, time must be taken to file extensions to IRS for 2006.
Planning includes short-term and long-term projects. Getting oil changed in the car is a must. Paying bills is a must. Meeting with staff and boards and committees is a must. Even meetings have quality of immediate function for short-term and strategy for long-term goals.
Planning requires review of mission and vision. Why and how to do what is done. What is the ulterior goal? Is there real purpose that drives the action? Is there any glue that coordinates the substance to make sense of all the separate parts?
Planning requires counsel. Counsel comes from God’s Word. Godly counselors. Prayer. It is more important to have good counselors than to have a lot of counselors.
Planning requires the ability to say “No!” in whatever manner is necessary to stay on course. “Yes!” must have the same right to be spoken. These two words will be spoken more to self than to others. Willfulness to self-discipline is essential to planning and staying even reasonably close to the objective.
Planning is especially important because interruptions will always happen and they may be a blessing or a curse. God reserves the right for the Holy Spirit to give directions for a sudden change of course. Plans even prayerfully written on paper may not include all that God has in the arrangements for today or the future.
The devil may also interrupt plans. The Evil One is ever concocting schemes and strategies to throw us off course. He attempts to time his hellish interruptions at the most precarious moments in an effort to catch us off-guard. Hell seeks to get man to respond to emergencies without seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit. Caught on the EDGE, the flesh can react in a manner to mess up both short- and long-term plans.
Part of my plans for the day is to write you this letter. Now I must hasten. Others are planning to mail this letter to you today. By the time you receive this letter, today will be past—unless you get email.
What about tomorrow? Will you have a plan that plans for your life to bring honor and glory to God? Have you written down your plan? Have you learned to make wise and godly choices that keep your mission and vision clear? Do you have godly counselors? Have you read the Bible? Have you prayed? Have you prepared for the devil’s interruptions?
Please plan. God is a planning God.
Pastor Bare