Best-Laid Plans: What Proverbs Says about Goals and Plans

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Proverbs 16:3, NIV

“The best laid schemes of mice and men ‘gang aft a-gley.” So goes the line from Robert Burns’ poem from which we get out phrase “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” In Burns’ poem, he writes about a poor mouse who has worked diligently to build a nest, only to have it “destroyed by Burns as he plowed his field.”[i] Like the poor mouse, we too can have our best-laid plans plowed over and wonder if there was any point in making them in the first place. Unlike the poor mouse, we have reason to hope that God is at work in the making of plans, even when they go awry.

The book of Proverbs offers wise counsel about making plans. Let’s consider four aspects:

1. Take time as we make plans: “The plans of the diligent lead to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5). The wise will set aside time to count the cost before launching impulsively into a project.
2. Seek counsel as we make plans: “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22). God has designed us to be in community—with him and with others. Our planning process should always begin with prayer. Including others in the process makes it more likely that we will set smart goals and keep moving toward them.
3. Make plans for good and not for evil: “Do not those who plot evil go astray?n But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness” (Proverbs 14:22). As we take time to plan and seek counsel about our plans, we want to consider our ultimate goal: How does this plan fulfill my calling to enjoy and glorify God?
4. Commit and submit to the Lord as we make plans: “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3). Proverbs 16:3 is not, as too many health and wealth purveyors have suggested, saying that if we simply write, “I commit this plan to you, the Lord will make it succeed.” It is telling us that we must, as Tremper Longman III explains, “submit our entire life’s action to God, so that even if our human plans are subverted, we can recognize an even deeper plan at work in our lives.”[ii]

Friends, as this new year begins, let’s not rush to share rash goals on social media. Rather, let’s take time in prayer and reflection to seek the Lord’s plans for us. And let us rest in knowing that even if they “gang aft a-gley,” the Lord is working “everything according to the purpose of his will,” (Ephesians 1:11), which is “good, pleasing, and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

Prayer:

Lord, help us to resist making foolish plans. Guide us by the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to make plans to “be fruitful and multiply” your glory on this earth. Give us wise counselors and friends to guide us. And help us to trust in you when things do not go as we thought they would.

In Jesus’ wise name. Amen.

Further Encouragement:

Read Proverbs 16:3, 21:5, 15:22, 16:3; Philippians 3:14 and Ephesians 1:11.

Listen to “Trust in You” by Lauren Daigle at https://youtu.be/qv-SXz_exKE.

For Reflection:

How do you go about making plans for “whatever you do?” Are there any changes you would like to make in your planning process?

(Affiliate link in footnote).

[i] Kim Baldwin, Farmer’s Bureau, “The Best-Laid Plans”.

[ii] Tremper Longman III, Proverbs, p. 328).