PROPER PLANNING

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil, but those who promote peace have joy.

Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.

A scoundrel plots evil, and on their lips it is like a scorching fire.

Proverbs 12:20, 14:22, 16:27

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

One thing is certain about all of us. We like to plan.

We do it all the time, don’t we?

We plan our days, we plan our weeks, and we plan across months and years. We plan for work. We plan for play. We plan for providing our time to family and volunteer offerings. We plan our time for vacation and we plan our time in the future.

Yes, we like to plan and we do it all the time but it isn’t all good, is it?

For there’s a dark side to planning, a deceitful side that schemes and plots to commit sinful acts against others. This tendency toward wicked planning only leads us down the path of evil and away from the Lord’s favor, a path that strays away from the narrow path of righteousness that He wants for us to walk.

Look at the life of Jesus and you will find this happening within the plans of the Jewish authorities of the day. They hated Jesus so much that scripture tells us they planned for a way to kill Him (Matthew 12:14, Mark 3:6, Mark 14:1) and as we know, they accomplished what they set out to do through one of Jesus’ own disciples, Judas, who agreed to betray Him for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16).

Yes, the words of Solomon in today’s proverbs certainly came to life in the wicked planning surrounding Jesus’ death.

1. A scoundrel plots evil, and on their lips it is like a scorching fire. Proverbs 16:27

In the plotting against Jesus, there was no shortage of scoundrels, that’s for sure. Their lips spewed nothing but evil fire as they spoke to one another about killing the Messiah who had been prophesied to come for so long.  

2. Deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil. Proverbs 12:20a

There’s no doubt that Judas was a deceiver. In fact, you’ll recall that the way he betrayed Jesus was with a kiss, having told the crowd of people who were with him to arrest the man he kissed because that man would be Jesus (Matthew 26:47-50).

3. Do not those who plot evil go astray? Proverbs 14:22a

Judas certainly had gone astray and I mean really astray. For after Jesus was arrested, Judas was so distraught over what he had done that he killed himself (Matthew 27:5).

Can’t we see clearly in the scriptures that sinful planning never ends up with good results for the one who engages in it? How many more examples like Judas do we need to figure that out?

So how are we supposed to plan? What kind of planning does God favor and what are the results?

For the answers, we need to look back to the proverbs for today.

Those who promote peace have joy. Proverbs 12:20b

Those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness. Proverbs 14:22b

Through God’s word, we learn that proper planning is the kind of planning pleasing to God is good and promotes peace. Ultimately, we find ourselves planning this way only when we invite the Lord into the process, the One who gives every good and perfect gift (James 1:17), the One who is the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6), the One who always leads us in the ways of righteousness when we respond in obedience to His will and way.

The fruits of this kind of righteous planning that is directed by the Lord are:

- Joy, joy for the planner and those involved in the plan.

- Love, the love of the Father who approves of the righteous plan and the love of the people who are blessed through it.

and

Faithfulness, the faithful blessing of the Lord who provides and protects through whatever life might bring.

In the end translation, we all plan and we all have equal potential to plan sinfully through wickedness or properly through righteousness.

Which way will you choose to plan?

My prayer is that you will allow the Lord to help you in every plan you make. For then and only then, will you be properly planning through every part of life.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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