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For the past couple years, God has been teaching me to MAKE PLANS and to commit them to Him prayerfully. I am not one who makes plans easily. Since I grew up moving so much with little control over the decision, my whole life always seemed to be in flux and I think I learned not to make many plans. Why make plans when I knew life could change in an instant? As a result of that, and because of my naturally free-spirited nature, I made a point to avoid planning. It was better, in my mind, to be open to changes at any moment, to allow God or circumstances to step in and change things at a moment's notice.
About two and a half years ago, I started realizing that a lot of verses that I often went to throughout my life all mentioned planning.
Psalm 20:4
May he (God) give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
Proverbs 16:1-3
To man belong the plans of the heart,
but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.
All a man's ways seem innocent to him,
but motives are weighed by the LORD.
Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.
There are many more that talk about God frustrating evil plans or delighting in the plans of the righteous, or God making good plans for his people.
Those verses made me realize that planning is...a GOOD thing! So I told the Lord then that I was going to work on making plans and trusting him to bring them to fruition. I started small, even working on making day plans and sticking to them. "My plan is to go to the bank at 2:30 and call my friend Chrissy in the evening." I would be so excited when I stuck to those small plans! Little by little, I became more comfortable with making plans, committing them to the Lord, sticking to them (with an openness for things to change if God needed), and seeing the plans succeed.
At the end of Spring 2008, I made the plan to finish my degree. It was the first time I had actually resolved in my spirit to finish school and I asked the Lord to give me the strength to see me through. Every time I felt tired, I remembered that I had a plan to finish the degree and committed it to the LOrd again. On December 18 2009, I graduated.
I realized from reading a few friends' New Year's resolutions blogs that resolutions are...PLANS! Last year, one of my resolutions was to write more letters, so I committed my plan to the Lord and throughout the year, I wrote more letters-to my grandma, my sponsor child, my friends and relatives, and now I feel that my plan has developed a habit in me and I will write more letters from now on as a result. I also resolved to draw closer to the Lord and find a new church home where I could commit to staying. THose plans were definitely honored by the Lord.
This past fall, a culmination of long held dreams, desires, circumstances and opportunities surfaced to make me start thinking about moving to SPain to teach English. It felt so huge and near impossible, but I felt God prompting me to make a plan and head towards it. So I made a plan, have committed it to him and am taking steps in that direction.
First I made the plan to ask my contacts in Spain(a cousin, a a friend, an acquantaince) for details about their experiences in the country and the job scene etc. Then I made the plan to talk to people who have taught English in other countries or who will teach (a classmate and a family friend) for details about the process of getting a job in another country. Next I had to make the decision whether I was going to get my TEFL certification or not. I planned to research various programs and I eventually found a reputable one. I signed up for it and am poised to start the online program in February-April. Besides giving me more skills and making me more marketable as a teacher overseas, the TEFL Institute offers lifetime job placement assistance to its graduates, so the plan to go through them also included getting help from them to contact language schools in Madrid and to help me with my CV etc. Now my plan is to get a job that pays at least $10/hour for this next semester so I can work and save money for my trip. This part of the plan is requiring more faith, considering the job market right now, but I have plans within my job search that I am committing to the Lord, so I am trusting that He will provide.
In general, I never thought I would learn how to make plans and follow through with them in a godly manner, but I encourage you, if you have the same difficulty with planning as I do, to seek to make resolutions (or plans) for this next year by committing them to the Lord. New Year's resolutions, like all plans, often fail because 1. We make them so broad and difficult to do practically and 2. We try to accomplish them soley in our own power.
#1 does not mean that we should only make "practical" plans. We have a God who specializes in impossibilities and who promises to do "abundantly above all that we ask or imagine!" What I mean is that we should break down our plans into doable steps. Even when God asked his people to do something, he broke it down for them- God told the Israelites to walk aroung Jericho's wall once every day, then seven times on the last day, then make a lot of noise. The people's act of obedience and trust that GOd would accomplish the plan to defeat Jericho was demonstrated in this story. And as with my aforemnetioned #2, the Israelites stepped forward, not in their own power, but relying on God and trusting his power and wisdom in accomplishing the plan. Then God felled the walls of Jericho- success of plan!
I felt led to share this because it is January 2nd, 2010, the time that the world is making New Year's resolutions! Remembering God's plan for our approach to making plans, really encouraged me to RESOLVE to move forward in the things I want to see happen this year. Whether the resolutions are big or small, require lots of planning or just day to day determination, I encourage you to remember that God knows our hearts, honors our righteous plans and will give us the strength and wisdom to complete them if we commit our plans to Him! Happy PLANNING! |
