Encore - 980 - Planning With God - Proverbs 16:9

Hey, it's Mike Henry with Follower of One. Today, I want to read a very convicting verse to me.    This is a conviction to me, and that's part of the reason why I want to read it. I think it's a challenge to all of us, especially in business, but in any type of work. Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” I've been working for the last few days, doing some strategic planning around the growth of what I hope the growth will be for Follower of One, and bathing that in prayer and asking God for his direction, for his wisdom and his guidance.   And then I would turn right around and get something- we’d get interrupted. And what I thought I would be spending my time doing X, I ended up having to spend my time doing Y. The Lord directs my steps. He ordains interruptions and circumstances and things that happen in my life, and I often don't like it.   I've just become a pouty little child because God's not letting me do what I wanted to do. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. I pray constantly. I don't pray constantly. That's an exaggeration. I pray regularly. That I would be easier to interrupt, that I would trust God more. My natural instinct is to get angry at interruptions, not to trust God that He would have me do something else.   Almost every interruption, almost everything that takes longer than I thought it would take, ends up being a blessing to me, if I would just trust Jesus and do what He says. Today in our workplaces, I would like to challenge you: let's remember the mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.   And now let me say that exactly correctly. I'm reading from the New American standard, the mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. I don't really think that references all that gender-oriented. I think, male or female, we can get all wrapped up in our own goals and objectives and we forget God, but the Lord directs our steps.   He's the one directing us. He's the one choosing what we do. I want to plan to do what God has for me to do, and that means my plans must include interruptions. My plans, and my attitude must be good with interruptions, because God is sovereign. He's the one choosing the plan. We have a person on one of the recent mission trips talking about how she had it all planned out that she was going to do her fastest exercise time walking through her neighborhood, but she couldn't get any of her timer apps to work, and she was very frustrated about that. So she took off anyway and she got interrupted a couple of times on the way and had opportunities to interact with her neighbors, that she never would have done had she had the timer ticking.    And it was just God saying, no, you're walking around the neighborhood today, but I want you to interact with the people that you come into contact with. I think God does that with my schedule. That I wire it tight as a drum, and I'm always in a hurry, and I always have to hurry up and get to the next thing.   And then an interruption will occur, or something will take longer, or something will need to be redone. Lord, may I please have an attitude of openness to you. And I pray that we all do. That openness and that willingness to be God's person in our situation is what makes our faith attractive to the people around us.   I hope today that this criticism of myself, this challenge I'm giving myself is beneficial to you in some way. Let's be the people that Jesus calls on today to make a difference in the lives of our coworkers and bank on it, that will require some interruptions. Thank you for being a marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference with your faith.   Don't forget if you're interested in more of this content, check us out at followerofone.org. Thanks very much.