Knowing the Lord Better Begins with Discipline, Prayer, and Proper Planning

Day 6

As I continue on this journey of diligently seeking to know the Lord in a more personal way, it seems that I continually end up in Proverbs – the book of wisdom. After all I did ask for wisdom, didn’t I? The Lord also continues to bring me to issues of discipline and prayer. But there’s another element to consider if I really want to know Him better and that is proper planning.

I’ve always appreciated proper planning and have found having systems in place to be a key to success in business. If you are constantly reinventing the wheel to generate business, you will never succeed. How quickly this came to my mind as it pertains to income producing. This knowledge has come to me by trial and error, advice of mentors and after having made many mistakes. Why didn’t I save myself a lot of stress by asking the Lord for guidance in the first place? He clearly tells us in Proverbs 21:5 that “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.” The answers to all questions are right there in God’s word, no matter what the subject.

So whether we’re talking about success in business, organizing the home and family or, as is the subject of our journey, knowing the Lord better – it begins with discipline, prayer, and now proper planning. I’ve found that I can’t hope that a quiet moment to pray and spend time with God will appear. It won’t. If I truly am serious about this journey, I realize that I must plan for this time together. It must be a priority in my schedule, I must be committed to that schedule and know that it’s a planned part of my day. Sometimes it’s difficult, especially as life happens and I get ‘too busy’. But do we ever say that we’re just too busy to get up and go to work? There’s just too much going on in my personal life to work today? Well, no, not if you want to keep your job and pay your bills.

So, I see clearly that I need to apply the same principles in my Christian walk that I have committed to applying in my business, which is discipline and planning. And the best part, a life that is centered around discipline and planning is a life that’s much less stressful. We could all use a little less stress in our lives!