Plans That Will Succeed

How to have plans that will succeed? Consider these three steps:

Step one: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3)   This is simple to say, but difficult to implement. Committing our plans to the Lord contravenes human tendency, which is trying to accomplish our plans by ourselves. Not until I reach a befuddling dead end or an abject failure does it dawn on me to commit to the Lord.

Step two: make sure your plans are based on proper motives. Wrong motives are often those based on our pride and greed. Proverbs 16:2 warns that “All of man’s ways seem innocent to him, but his motives are weighed by the Lord.”

Since there is no fooling the Lord, we might as well ask him for help in making our motives proper. “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7). If God can make enemies peaceful, what other wonderful things can he help us accomplish when he approves of our motives?

Step three: Pray to the Holy Spirit to accomplish steps 1 and 2. God gave us the Holy Spirit to act as our counselor (John 14:26), to teach us how to pray (Romans 8:26), to discern the truth and purify our motives (1 John 2:20) and to commit our plans to the Lord. Jeremiah 17:7 confirms saying, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.”