Failing to Plan
Life has been discombobulated for me lately. God’s got me doing new things and those new things require learning new things. Me, I’m a creature of habit and I failed to plan when God brought these new things into my life. This has left me
- stressed out,
- frazzled,
- failing to get anything done,
- completely out of my normal routines
(and these are critical for my health), and because I fell out of routine – my health took a nose-dive. The saying:
Failing to plan is planning to fail has been oh so true in my life these last few weeks. 
The Holy Spirit got my attention though, drug me out the door and onto a walk. These walks are my favorite. Thing was – He drug me out the door and I didn’t hear Him say anything until I got back home.
As I was preparing some lunch (something I’ve been forgetting to do) the Holy Spirit began talking to me about planning.
Reminding me that my body is His dwelling place, His temple.
As I listened He poured into me so richly. This post is what the Spirit taught me. I pray that my fumble will help you as much as it’s helped me.
We will never grow if we don’t do as John Maxwell said, “fail forward”. Learning, growing, and getting stronger from our mistakes.
Truth: We’ve gotta learn from our mistakes and follow God’s lead.
3 Things Failing to Plan Can Impact
Planning Impacts our Health
Failure to plan can lead us to eat quick on-the-go foods that are often high in calories and horribly low in the nutrients we need to do life. When we begin eating this way we increase the chances of developing many chronic diseases such as
- diabetes,
- heart disease,
- high blood pressure,
- GI issues like irritable bowel syndrome,
- and overweight/obesity.
We even run the risk of weakening our immune system and not being able to fight off everyday bugs. Then there’s the effect lack of planning has on our overall life.
Planning Impacts our Life
Stress and anxiety, exhaustion, brain fog – sound familiar?
These are part of what can happen when we don’t plan. We bounce from thing to thing with little idea of how it all piled up on us and then fall into bed later than usual. Do we sleep well? Nope!
Our brains are still on overdrive trying to figure out how we’re going to survive tomorrow. The lack of planning leaves us so stressed out and anxious about everything that we’re in a tailspin that doesn’t seem to have an end.
This should leave us running to God but…there’s no time for that.
Planning Impacts our Godliness
When life’s out of control and running in a million directions all at the same time God seems to always get shoved in the trunk. I’d say backseat but our relationship with Him is typically so far out of sight at this point that the trunk seemed more appropriate.
Thing is, God hasn’t left us. He’s right where He’s always been.
Our failure to plan has just caused us to unintentionally ignore Him.
Failing to plan doesn’t just affect our relationship with God though; it also affects our relationship with others and who or what they see reflected in our lives.
It’s these out of control times in our lives where the fruits of the Spirit all seem to die and the weeds of the flesh all seem to take over just like purslane in a PNW garden.
There’s hope though.
There’s always hope!
3 Lessons on Planning
Why Plan? Simple reason – because God plans. Easy enough?
Don’t we wish.
Sometimes planning itself seems to be the one thing we don’t have time to plan for. But the peace and order and calm that comes from planning…is heavenly.
If you plan like David and Solomon did, your planning will be heavenly. And not just a heavenly “feeling”, it’ll be planning done right alongside your creator and God, and with the Holy Spirit leading you along.
Here’s 3 lessons we can learn from David and Solomons building of the temple.
We’ve also created two day planners to help you as you plan your busy life with God. Here’s a
Have a Support Team
2 Samuel 7
David had just settled into his palace and there was finally peace around him. What’d he decide to do? Build a temple for God. But – (here’s the lesson) instead of setting to work he went to Nathan the prophet, his advisor.
When Nathan sought God on David’s behalf, David was obedient to what God said.
Part of our success in getting out of an unplanned tailspin is to seek godly counsel. Last week I did this and a dear friend has been texting me every day asking if I’d taken the time to seek God before I set about doing anything.
- Who can you go to and ask to pray for you?
- Ask to encourage you and seek God with you about getting things back on track?
Action Step 1: Find a godly friend and ask them to pray with/for you about the things you need to put a plan in place for. This could involve planning your entire life, planning healthy meals, incorporating physical activity into your day, your relationships with others (family included), the use of your free time, your work/life balance…
Whatever area of your life feels out of control & totally unplanned.
Start there.
Put the Plan on Paper
1 Chronicles 22
Even though God told David he wouldn’t be the one to build the temple, David still played an important role. He prepared the materials his son would need to build the temple. He planned so that his son would be set up to succeed.
Before David died he gave Solomon very specific instructions for building the Lord’s house. Some of the most important instructions David gave Solomon were
- to keep the law of the Lord,
- to observe the decrees and laws the Lord gave Israel, and
- to remember that the Lord was with him.
Planning and organization has to be done in obedience to God and in accordance with His will for our lives. When we set out to do things that aren’t part of God’s plan for us – we’re left struggling to do them in our own strength.
Successful planning begins when we lay our needs before God and ask Him to direct our steps.
Action Step 2: Take the area of your life from step 1 and sit down with God and your calendar.
Don’t put this off. Do it right now.
Take 30 minutes and prayerfully begin planning. We’ve included some resources for planning and scheduling below.
Ask For Help
1 Kings 5-6, 2 Chronicles 2-7
One of the first things Solomon did when he set out to build the Lords temple – ask for help. The next thing he did was to delegate people to carry out and supervise the work.
Whatever area you need to course correct in, ask for help and begin delegating things to other people.
Okay, I understand that you may feel no one but you can do whatever it is you’re needing to straighten up. Ask anyway.
That’s what your church family, friends, and biological family are for. It’s okay to ask a friend to come over and help you clean the house. To ask someone to pick the kids up from school or daycare. It’s okay to even ask someone to take the kids for a day so you can cross things off your list.
Action Step 3: Take a look at the things you’ve got to get done and prioritize them from most to least important.
- How many can be left undone?
- Which items are critical non-negotiables?
- Which will you ask others to help with?
I promise, if you’ve asked God to help you – He will provide the resources and strength to get it all done.
Results of Planning
What were the results of David and Solomon’s planning? An architectural phenomena was built that awed people from every surrounding nation. There careful planning and reliance on God allowed the Lord’s temple to be built in peace and quiet.
Not a hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was used on site while the temple was being built. Why? To honor God and because the people respected God and carried that through to every detail of the temples construction.
If Solomon can build the Lord’s temple quietly and at peace, we can ask the same God to help us plan out our lives so they’re marked by honor, respect and worship of God.
As always, ask your pastor if you’ve got questions about anything you’ve read today. If you don’t have a pastor email us [email protected], leave a comment below or contact us here.
If you missed the last planning post you can find it here.
Check back Friday for 10 Planning Tips for Busy People
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