Fruitful 2015 – 2: Engage your heart, engage God

I’ve found Proverbs 16 to be a great source of inspiration for getting to grips with preparation and planning. In fact, I’d describe the whole chapter as ‘the planner’s toolkit,’ and encourage you to read it.

A key take-away for me is that planning is an affair of the heart, and not just the intellect. Verses 1 and 9 reveal that the ‘preparations of the heart belong to man’, and ‘a man’s heart plans His way’. It’s also a process that God wants to be part of based on intimate relationship: “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”¹

In fashioning the future, there’s more going on than rationalistic programming of our neurons and conditioning new behaviours to propel us to meet our goals. Yes, we have amazing God-given brainpower, but we are also spiritual beings with a loving Creator God who wants to be involved in the detail of our lives.

He has plans, passions and purposes for us individually, as families, enterprises and communities, and wants us to partner with Him to see these bear fruit.

Being present to His presence

Presence is the starting point – our engagement with the presence, character and resources of God in our lives. Before, and as, we carve out our future, we need to carve out quiet, quality time and space to reflect, question and listen in God’s presence.

The two proverbs I mentioned above also tell us that, as we plan in our hearts, the Lord ‘gives the answer of the tongue’ and ‘directs our steps.’ Here are some questions that will prompt your God-guided planning for your year ahead:

• Do you already have a long-range vision for your life? (See related post: Why it’s vital   to keep your vision visible) If so, how do you want to see it progress in 2015?
• What is your overriding passion? What makes you come alive?
• What desires, projects or plans have you put on hold for some time, perhaps because of financial or time constraints?
• Could you be approaching a new season in your life, where something needs to come to a close to let you move to the next stage?
• Challenging us to embrace God’s dreams for our lives, Rolland and Heidi Baker ask, “Is your current dream too small for such an amazing God?”² In other words, do you need to think bigger to reflect God’s view of your potential and His limitless resources, while not belittling the idea of small first steps?
• Do you need to turn away from any wrong, negative beliefs about planning, preparing or visioning, based on unfulfilled dreams, past setbacks or put-downs? Remember, He will give you the desires of your heart!
• How do your plans and passions connect to advancing God’s kingdom purposes?

I’ll continue this series on Friday with a post looking at how we all have God-given spheres of authority and influence, and why you could be poised for growth in one or more of these spheres.

In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know how  your preparations for a more fruitful year are shaping up.

¹ Psalm 37:4

² Reckless Devotion, Rolland and Heidi Baker, River Publishing