Purpose over Plans

Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the work that was stand.

I am a planner. Not a down to the minute, or even the hourly planner, but I usually have a list of things I want to accomplish throughout the day or sometimes in a week. Wednesday was one of those days where I had a plan. It didn’t go at all as I had planned. I got off work late. It was colder outside than I like. It snowed, not a lot but I was not motivated to do what I planned to. I purposed that I would take care of things on Thursday, forgetting that my husband would have my car. Today is Saturday. Although I didn’t get the steps in that I had hoped for this week, I finally checked off all the things I had planned for this week.

I am one of those people who starts my day off with God’s word. Every day, even when I’m on vacation, I get in to God’s Word. I also try to journal most days. Some days it’s a few lines, a prayer, and scripture. Other times it’s paragraphs or pages. I am faithful to journal about 90% of the time maybe more.

Despite being a planner, and very task oriented, I am not always good a completing certain things. One area I am not always good at following up on, is the plans or purposes of the Lord. Yes, I’m getting better, but I can think of some specific assignments that I have felt purposed by him to do, that I have not been faithful to complete. Some I’ve given a valiant effort, like praying that each of the church is where I used to live. I drove around for weeks hoping that would not get the police called on me as I parked and prayed over 55 churches. I felt like I was to pray at all the churches that year.

Other purposes, I was not nearly as faithful to follow up on. I felt like I was given the assignment of praying daily at my work assignment in some very specific locations. I might have done it where I was told a handful of times over the five-year period. Not that I didn’t pray at my job more, but not as it was purposed in my heart. And then there are some things that I have felt a burden for and prayed regularly until that burden lifted.

There are other things I created an outline for but never got around to finishing. One of the downfalls of my personality as I love to investigate but I go down so many rabbit holes. I save so many things to go back and learn more about; I never get around to finishing the initial assignment.

God rarely gives me deadlines. Deadlines are a motivation for me to complete tasks. I can procrastinate, but I know it has a specific time frame to be completed. However, as Bob Goff writes “God only cares about what we do next with what we already know, and every day we all start in the same place.” I need to realize His assignment is for now unless God shows me otherwise.

Prayer: Lord, I know I make plans but it is your purposes that I not only want to stand in but I also want to complete. I want to complete them for your glory and your honor because I know that your purposes are eternal. Help me to create the same urgency with your purposes as I do with deadline.