What of your plans and work?
Monday Reflection – 2017
What of your plans and work?
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)
The New Century Version puts it this way, “Depend on the Lord in whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
We engage in planning every day, every week, every year. Many of us plan out our days and weeks. I have to plan out the routes to take when I’m going on the road or else I feel disoriented. Teachers engage in lessons plans, organizations set out daily and weekly schedules, institutions develop strategic plans. During 2016, the Moravian Church in Jamaica & The Cayman Islands spent the larger part of the year developing a 5-year strategic plan.
It is important to plan, and as we regularly say, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. God is a God of plan; nothing just happens. We see the evidences of God’s plan in the ordered nature of creation and the uniqueness and intricacies of human beings. Yet, in the midst of our planning we ought to recognize, that any plan outside of God’s plan is destined for failure. Over and over again in the Bible, we are advised to commit our plans to the Lord so that we may receive his confirmation, and only then will they be established. Seek God’s directive in whatever we do and we will succeed.
The obvious questions that arise are: what plans are we pursuing? Are our plans sanctioned by the Lord? What are our expected results? We plan so that we may be successful. That success is only guaranteed when God is leading the way.
So many of us are always working, working, working. We are working for success in the many areas of our lives. Some of us are engaged in church work, yet we need to be sure that we are working for the Lord. One of my ecumenical colleagues once told the story of a member of his church who came to him complaining that he was tired of working for the church. As an insightful Minister, he told the member, “I’m happy. Stop working for the church and start working for the Lord.” We can be so hard at work and busy like crazy, but really achieving what?
While we plan and work, God is interested in our work for him, but far more interested in his work in us. At my home church at Bethany, we learnt and sang this song: “Kids under construction, maybe the paint is still wet, wet, wet! Kids under construction, the Lord is not through with me yet.” It was such an exciting song and only later did I come to appreciate just how simple yet powerful it is. Today’s Doctrinal text affirms this message: God is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
Truly, God desires to be at work in us like the Potter, shaping and reshaping us into what seems good to him. So while we are at work, God is also at work. He is at work in us, while we are doing his work.
May our desire and interest be more about God’s work in us than for us. The truth is when God is at work in us, our work is far more successful, beneficial and satisfying, for we do his will and reflect his character and glory.
During this week, may we allow God to continue his work in us, and may we be productive in our work for him!
Till next week, remain on the Potter’s wheel.
Jermaine Gibson