A goal without a plan is just a wish.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

To be successful in your life, you need to have a life plan. Without a plan, many of your dreams will only be dreams. A life plan, on the other hand, will help you turn your dreams into reality. It works because it gives you not just a destination, but also a way to get there.

A life plan doesn’t have to be complicated. It should answer just two questions:

1. What is your destination?
2. How will you get there?

This way of thinking helps us identify what matters most to us.  For me, faith in God, family, and service to others are my top priorities.   My plan for each day is to commune with God, to spend time with family, and to look for and respond to the needs of others.  I know that if I work my plan, then I will get to my destination – heaven!

So what does your life plan look like?  Don’t have one? – Maybe today is the day you ask God to help you develop one.  I guarantee by doing this you will find purpose in life.

Wow, what an opportunity to serve Christ!  As I reflect on the 2011 Youth Mission Trip to Vancouver, Canada, I am amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit working within this world.  Our purpose for the trip was to give the youth at Morrison the opportunity to learn about God’s love by serving others and experiencing a part of the world different than ours.    

One lesson we all learned from this experience was that wealth is not measured in dollars but in the number of options one has.  A life with options is more valuable than money.  This is a very different way to measure one’s resources.  

In light of this definition of wealth, how rich are you?

Most of us would agree with the statement that “obedience is the key to the Christian life.”  The idea of doing the right thing is important to us as followers of Christ.  But let me ask you something.  Is just doing the right thing more important that the reason we do it?  Are we to obey just for obedience sake?

This concept implies that we obey because it's the right thing to do, and that God will bless our efforts regardless of the motivation for our obedience.   I don’t believe that this is exactly true!  Our Christian obedience involves a relationship between God and us.  We learn what he wants for us, then we respond.  Obedience for obedience sake is not Biblical.  Deuteronomy 5:33 says to “walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days.”  God wants us to do the right thing so that we will grow in our faith and understanding.   Obedience should be our response to our relationship with God.  He wants us to choose to obey out of love, not fear.  This type of obedience then leads us to growth and responsibility.

God doesn’t want an army of puppets, he’s looking for those who choose to follow him.  What about you?  What motivates you to do what you do?