Successful planning

Have you made any plans lately? Let’s say – It is a beautiful day with an awesome weather. What about planning a football match with friends?? Or an outing to the hills? So you make some calls and get everyone ready and everything organized… Suddenly from out of nowhere it started to drizzle and in no time heavy rains are pouring down… Your plans are now washed out by rain.

You make a plan and then plan spoilers springs up out of nowhere and ruin everything!!! Did anything like this ever happen to you? Pretty sure it has, for in life not everything turns out as we plan!!! But there is a secret to get all our plans successful and fruitful!!!

Let us open the treasure book and find out this secret!!!

OPENING THE TREASURE BOOK

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to PROSPER you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a FUTURE.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Our Father in heaven works according to His plans. “Salvation through Jesus” is an awesome plan of God to save people from perishing eternally. In the creation process, we see yet another impeccable plan being carried out. We too are created as a part of God’s plan. Hence there are plans and purposes associated with each of our lives. God has several plans for each phase of our life. Our goal is to stick to these plans & purposes. God loves each of us and He knows the BEST for our life. His plans for us are never to harm us but to prosper us and to give us hope and a future.

GOD has plans for us that will prosper us and give us hope and future.

We all have many plans / ideas / thoughts in our heart and there is nothing wrong with that because that’s how we are wired!!! We saw here that our Father works according to His plans. Since we are created in His likeness, we too make plans…

However, for our plans to be fruitful and successful, we should seek God’s advise in everything and commit to Him everything we do. He is an “all knowledgeable” God who knows what stays and what fails!!! So once you have an idea / thought, submit it to God in prayer for His advice. Then He will help us to form a plan in alignment with “His plans for our lives” and will guide us & direct our steps through the best possible way. When we are not connected to God, we will make our own plans and when our plans are not in alignment with God’s, they will fail miserably!!! If our plans are aligned with His plans – it becomes fruitful and successful.

Mary was a young girl engaged to a man named Joseph. Like any other couple, they both were also counting the days to their marriage and dreaming about their life together. But then something extraordinary happened. An angel from heaven visited Mary and told her

You have found favor with GOD. You will conceive and give birth to a Child and you should call his name Jesus.”

She was confused!! She told him “How can this be? I am not married yet!!!” then the angel told her,

the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will conceive and bear a child and he will be called Son of God”.

In those days, women who were found to be with children before their marriage were looked down upon in the society and were punished severely. They were STONED TO DEATH, if caught!!! So for Mary, if she is found to be pregnant before her marriage, Joseph will definitely call off their engagement and her dream of a family life will shatter because in their culture no one will ever marry such a lady!!!  She will be looked down upon by her near & dear ones and her society. More importantly, if caught, she will be stoned to death by law!!! No one will believe her if she says the truth, not even Joseph… She had her reputation, her future and her life itself at stake!!!

This was a plan spoiler for her!! It would spoil all her plans for future. She could either ignore Gods plan and live a normal life or risk her life and go ahead with Gods plan.

What did she choose?

Well.., she did not have any doubt on what to choose. She immediately answered “Let it be to me as God’s plan”…  She trusted God and his plan and knew His plans for her are better than hers. She also knew, His plans for her will never harm her but will give her hope and a future!!! In fact, she found it a great honor to be chosen by God to carry out His plan – to fulfil His plan and purpose for her life.

What happened to Mary for choosing God’s plan?

We read in Mathew Chapter 1:19 that Joseph had plans to quietly leave Mary when he got to know she is pregnant!! He was a just man so he didn’t want her to be a public spectacle, but wanted to get rid of her quietly. But he had a vision from God and it was made known to him that Mary being pregnant is part of God’s divine plan. God wanted him to take Mary as his wife. He obeyed God and chose to take her as his wife and father the child.

God took care of problems that came her way. Mary did not lose anything because of following God’s plan. In fact both God’s plan and her plan were in alignment. She did not lose the family life she dreamt about nor her reputation in the society. On the contrary, her reputation grew as the mother of Jesus. It did not stay only in her generation, but all generation that came after calls her “Blessed”. She also did not lose her future or her life because of this plan, but God gave her a blessed life as mother of Jesus – the savior of all people.

When we walk in alignment with Gods plan, our steps will be directed by Him and obstacles in the path will also be taken care by Him.

Treasures uncovered

God loves us soo much. God’s plan for our life are not plan spoilers as we might think, but is packed with goodness and blessings. We should always walk in alignment with God’s plans and purposes for our life and then our plans will become successful and fruitful. God knows the BEST and HE IS THE BEST!!!

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for the plans you have for our lives – plans that will prosper us and gives us hope and future. Help us to walk in alignment with your plans and fulfill the purposes for our lives. Help us to always stay connected to you and commit all our ways to you. Help us to seek your advise in everything we do. Thank you, in Jesus name, Amen!

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