PROF. BEN ONYEUKWU (REV)
NCE(Eng.) ND/HD (Journalism); BA (Hons)
MA, PhD.
PLANNING YOUR FUTURE WITH GOD
“Come now,
you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year
there, but and sell, and make a profit; whereas you do not know what will
happen tomorrow … instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live
and do this or that” … (James 4;13-17).
INTRODUCTION:
Planning is the process of deciding
in detail how something should be done, before doing it. This involves goal setting and the
marshalling out of one’s course of action, as well as putting in place the
order of one’s priority before lunching into action. Planning is necessary to
prevent disasters. The expression of Jesus in (Luke 14;28) offers a piece of
advice which upholds the principle(s) of planning to ensure successful
completion of projects. Be it as it may, planning one’s future with God takes
the dimension of taking into account what His word says about such a plan. So;
DON’T IGNORE GOD IN PLANNING YOUR FUTURE
The foremost biblically cited danger
in ignoring God in the planning of one’s future is portrayed in the parable of
the rich fool, (Luke 12;16-21). Pointedly, his ego-centric concept of planning
his future business expansion was greeted with divine displeasure. Thus, all
his plans were centered on; “I will do this”, “I will pull down”, “I will
build”, “I will store”, and “I will say to my soul”… and not on, “if the Lord
wills or “by the grace of God”, I will do this or that, (verses 18-19).
Consequently, God replied, “you fool, this night will your soul be taken” … (vs
20). This strongly signals God’s displeasure when;
(i)
people consider future projects without
considering His will
(ii)
governments consider policies that would
affect future generations without considering His will
(iii)
parents consider future careers for their
children without considering His will, etc.
Ignoring
God in planning the future can bring about the death of the planner and the
abandonment of the proposed project(s). In the opinion of the writer, many
abandoned projects spread across the globe may have been informed by this
attitude.
FIND OUT THE SPECIFIC PLACE
FOR YOUR FUTURE ASSIGNMENT
Economists
stress the importance of locating one’s business in a place most suitable. To
this end, entrepreneurs are advised to locate their businesses where there are
raw materials, good road network, market, power supply and more. Similarly, God prepares grounds for the
sincere seekers of His will for their future endeavours. Our devotional text (James 4: 13 – 17) holds
that it is wrong for one to by one’s personal volition make a choice of one’s
place of future business activities or career without ascertaining if God
approves of it or not. This implies that one can bring sorrows into one’s
future by taking the wrong steps. Therefore, it becomes advisable to seek
divine guidance in taking – up a place for the;
(i)
location of one’s business organization
(ii)
building of one’s home
(iii)
worship and services to God, etc.
Finding
out one’s divinely specified place for one’s project or assignment guarantees
one’s success. This is because God always prepares grounds in the places He
appoints for people.
DEPEND ON GOD FOR SUCCESS
Those who trust God for success in
what they do make such ventures insurmountable. This is because God backs-up
such ventures with the power of His presence. Thus, the Bible remarks that
“those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but
abides forever”, (Psalm 125;1). The basic fact here is that those who trust God
in life cannot be moved, and whatever business they do can hardly record
failures. But, trusting absolutely on our human abilities (education,
experiences, skills, etc.) or what money can do with no regards to the will and
power of God, will eventually lead to colossal loss of energy, material and
money. Furthermore, those who trust in
charms and fetish means for business success drag themselves to the divine
court-room which in turn pronounces divine judgement on them and on the
businesses they do. This indicates that
one can bring sorrows into one’s business empire by;
(i)
trusting in charms, instead of trusting God
for what He can do.
(ii)
relying on human expertise, instead of
relying on the power of God.
(iii)
placing confidence on money, instead of
placing confidence on God who gives money, etc.
In
conclusion, it is important to stress that taking business steps in the order
of God’s will and trusting Him for successes will definitely bring one into the
lime-light of legitimate prosperity. PLAN
WITH GOD TODAY.
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