Men As Christ
Where Iron Sharpens Iron / Proverbs 27:17
Spiritual Planning
John 15:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
Blog
If someone were to ask you about your business plan this year, you could go into a myriad of G&O’s, metrics/KPI’s, etc. about what success for your business will look like this year. We could do the same for same for plans around health/weight, retirement, financial investments, exercising, vacations, Family events, etc. But, being honest with ourselves, many of us could not really tell you the specific’s around our Spiritual Plans. It’s ironic (and a bit scary) that the most important thing in our lives can sometimes become the least-focused-on, developed, and monitored plan. Oh, I’m not suggesting that we don’t plan to go to Church, try to pray more and worry less, read the Bible more, be part of a Faith Group, volunteer, etc. Most people that I ask about their Faith life have a lot of great things that they are engaging in regularly. But, most would admit that they’re business and personal health plans have a lot more details around each – especially on the planning/forecasting side(s). And, we tend to have better milestones for the other plans (e.g. annual, quarterly, weekly, & daily reviews and meetings, weigh-in’s, tests, etc.) to monitor our progress. Again, the up-front planning is less-likely for some of us in our Spiritual Lives. If you talk with others in the Faith, at Church, etc. and/or look at resources via the internet, you’ll find (rather easily) a number of examples to help get you focused, coordinated, and regularly-reviewing your annual Spiritual Plans (for an example that I found on-line from Lifeway, click here). Most are quite simple and can easily be done individually, in a Faith Group, as a Family, etc. I can’t think of a better New Year’s resolution – even if it’s not January 1st!
Men As Christ 