Planning NOT to Fail

I listen to Andy Stanley’s podcast each week and highly recommend that you make it a part of your podcast itinerary, if you have one of those.  Northpoint Community Church is the way to find the podcast on iTunes or search “Andy Stanley”.  This morning he said something that has really stuck with me.  He made the following statement:  “People do not plan to mess up their lives, but they don’t not plan to mess up their lives”.  This is so true!

Think about it.  No one stands at the altar of their first marriage and thinks, “I can’t wait to mess this up…this is step number one of my plan to bring heartache into my life”.  No one does that.  No one plans to fail.   But the problem is that very few people actually have a plan “NOT” to fail.  Instead, they have no plan at all.  And without a plan I can pretty much guarantee you that you will fail, or you will at least fail to accomplish much of what you desired originally to accomplish.  How I wish I could go back in time in my life and actually plan how to raise my children and how to be an excellent husband.  Things would be different if I could go back and do them over again.

The best plan is the plan of God.  Psalm 33:10-12 says this:  “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.  The counsel of the Lord stands forever.  The plans of His heart to all generations.  Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”   Bringing God into the picture sharpens the focus of the word “plan”.  Without God it is better to have a plan.  But how do you know that your plan is a good plan?  Or a wise plan?  I don’t think you or I are smart enough to know that.  But God is smart enough to know what the right plan is and He has, in His word, given us so much of what that plan is.

So, think about what Andy Stanley says.  Are you planning not to fail?  What is your plan for marital or financial or spiritual victory and success?  No plan will pretty much always lead to failure.  God’s plan will EVERY time lead to success.  Any comments?