PLANNING AHEAD

The key to being mature is being responsible. As we grow older chronologically, our life experiences should have taught us many things. One of these experiences is to plan ahead. Planning ahead presupposes the attribute of foresight. Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines "foresight," as, "Prescience; foreknowledge; prognostication; the act of foreseeing. Milton. 2. Providence care of futurity; foreknowledge accompanied with prudence in guarding against evil. Spenser." We know that God has all foreknowledge.

Since we are created in the image of God, we possess foreknowledge to a limited degree. We possess foreknowledge because of our prior knowledge. We can make somewhat accurate predictions. This ability enables us to progress beyond the obvious. It is an extension of our intelligence. Another concept that comes to mind, in this regard, is forecasting. Every business attempts to forecast future consumer demand. Without this aspect, they could not properly have an adequate supply of goods.

Because we live in a world of predictability, we can make these projections and be relatively correct. We have meteorologists who forecast the upcoming weather for us. While sometimes they are incorrect, they at least provide us with the means to make an assessment about what we can expect on a given day. If they say that it will be 12 degrees and it turns out to be 18 degrees overnight, it is still cold and we would know what precautions to take. We are all in need of knowing what the weather is going to be. You would not decide to take a vacation to Florida during a hurricane, would you?

Proverbs 29:18 speaks about foresight, "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." People perish because they are unable to make accurate prognostications about the future. This is because they no longer keep the law of God and the world becomes to them a place of pure chance and their lives are predicated upon the winds of fate. The one who keeps the law of God is happy because he makes accurate forecasts of the future and he is blessed for his efforts.

If something is true, then, by definition, the opposite is also true. This is because truth is always in balance. The book of Proverbs is replete with this very axiom. One such example is Proverbs 20:4, "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." The idler does not plan ahead. He always has a justification for his inactions. This verse tells us that those who fail to plan ahead will be led into poverty. The opposite would be true for those who are diligent. Because they took the time and effort to forecast the future, they will have plenty in the times to come. This is the conclusion of Proverbs 13:4, "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." Knowing the truth axiom enables us to know that what is true also has an opposite truth.

All foresight is based upon this commandment found in Exodus 20:3, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This is a negative command. Its opposite would say that we are to have only one God. If we keep this commandment, in its full import, then Proverbs 3:9-10 will be the result, "Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." This would be foreseeing the consequences of our actions. In this regard, the results would be positive.

The book of Proverbs is replete with examples of how to have an abundance and how to be poverty stricken. A good illustration is found in Proverbs 28:19, "He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." Those who are willing to put forth the effort of forecasting i.e. planning ahead and then, working their plan, will have prosperity. The contrast here is for those who follow dreamers, whose plans and schemes never do come to fruition. They boast of great feats but deliver on nothing. It is always about what they are going to do, not what they actually accomplish, which is nothing.

Wise individuals are those who have learned from their mistakes and now take them into account when forecasting the future. They know what does not work and they have the knowledge not to repeat what failed, but try something that will succeed. It all comes down to trial and error. While this may be the case, we can short cut the process by looking to the Lord in His word and think His thoughts after Him. By so doing, we become omniscient to a limited degree.

Planning ahead would normally be thought to be merely physical. Planning ahead is first and foremost a spiritual enterprise. Planning requires thought. This is a spiritual exercise. As has been pointed out elsewhere, short term thinking will result in lower class living, whereas, long term planning brings about upper class thinking. Those who desire to be prosperous must learn the character trait of delayed gratification. Without it, nothing of any long lasting reward will be available.

Those who have truly planned ahead have made reservations for the life hereafter. Paul made this clear in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Here we see that physical life is temporary. The most important things are clearly spiritual. To plan ahead means taking care of the spiritual first and foremost and then the physical. Most people take care of the physical and completely ignore the spiritual. My brethren, such things ought not to be.