Thursday, April 28, 2011

A burden for people without a plan to reach the people will cause the burden to over a period of time wane.  I remember getting a camera a while back and was so excited to learn everything about the camera.  A problem surfaced when I didn’t have a plan to learn about how to use the camera in the manual mode and how to take special effect shots.  As of today, I do use the camera, but I still don’t know how to use all the buttons because I never had a plan to take a class to learn all the intricacies of the camera.  I had no plan.  I’m still in the same place I was in when I first got the camera.  Without a plan the dreams and hopes will be unrealized.

Nehemiah, after hearing about his people who survived the captivity in Jerusalem and hearing about the walls and gates that were in disrepair, began to weep and mourn, and pray and fast.  In fact, he prayed for 4 months about this and in the process of praying, he developed a plan of what he would do if given the chance to help his people and his city.  He was burdened so much that when he went before the King to serve him a drink, King Artaxerxes saw his saddened face and recognized it as a sad heart (Neh 2:2-3)  At this time Nehemiah was very afraid because of what the king might do, but he told the king what had happened to his people and his city and asked if he could go back and rebuild the city.  When King Artexerxes said yes, Nehemiah had a plan that he began to lay out for the king.  “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah?  And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates. . .”  Nehemiah not only had a burden for his people, but he had a plan to help them.

If I am going to be a camera buff that knows how to use all the buttons and dials on my camera, I need a plan.  If I wanted to reach out to marriages and families in trouble, I needed a plan.  That plan was to get more schooling (2 masters and 2 doctorates) to prepare myself for reaching out to marriages and families.  If and when God gives you a burden for what He wants you to do, you need to have a plan in preparing yourself for the task at hand and resources you will need to be equipped for His call.

To carry out this journey, we need a plan and roadmap to get from where we are to where God wants us to be.  The mind of a man plans his ways, but God directs his steps (Prov. 16:9)