We have all heard the statement…if you fail to plan, you might as well plan to fail. Most people spend more time planning their vacation than they do their life. They spend more time planning their grocery list than they do the direction of their future. If I were to sit down with you and ask you, “What is your life plan,” how would you respond? Do you have one? Have you taken the time to set out a plan for your life? Most people never get to where they want to go in life because they haven’t taken the time to chart the course.

“Anyone can SIMPLY live life and exist but it takes someone who can CHART a course to get the MOST out of life.”

We have a GPS in our car that I use all the time. I love the fact that I don’t have to think about all the turns I have to make, I can just punch in the address and follow the directions. When our daughter, Allie, was three year old, she would always remind us to turn on the “calculator” when we got into the car. She called the GPS a calculator because when I missed my turn (which happened frequently, I hate to admit, even with a GPS) a voice would say…”recalculating.” I can’t remember what it was like before the GPS. We actually had to map out our course and look out for road signs!

I think a lot of people are living life without a GPS. They are “driving around” without any real sense of where to go or how to get there. We as humans have such a desire for our lives to end up with purpose and meaning, yet many are living their lives frustrated with the feeling of going round and round in circles only to end up back where they started. They don’t want to “pay the price” for a system that would help them.

We are in need of a GPS system for our lives, a GOD-Positioning-System to make sense of the twist and turns that this journey of life takes us on. Without a “system” to point us in the right direction, we might as well try to get to where we need to go in life by spinning around in circles until we bump into something. We, as followers of Christ, are called to be led by the Holy Spirit, the ONE who leads us in ALL truth. We don’t have to live life with a fear of “doing the wrong thing” or “messing things up” when we are in step with His Spirit. It’s only when we turn off the GPS (God-Positioning-System) that things get crazy. Our pride wants to turn the GPS off and take matters into our own hands (men you know what I’m talking about). Sometimes we don’t want to stop and ask for directions, because we figure…we got ourselves in this mess, we can surely get ourselves out of it. But life is BIGGER than us, and sometimes we get pretty lost without a light to shine down and illuminate our path.

Psalm 119:105 

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” 

God’s Word lights the way for our decision making, our calling, and our destiny. So what is your system? How are you turning on your GPS and letting God talk to you about the course you need to take? Is the volume on your GPS turned up so that when God speaks you can hear Him? Do you only turn the GPS on for BIG TIME trips in your life, or do you use it for the daily routes you take as well? I know for sure that when I arrive at my final destination in life, I want to KNOW that it was the right course. Francis Chan said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”

Proverbs 21:5

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” 

The Bible tells us to plan and plot our course. Jesus reminded us that a builder must sit down to count the cost and plan before he starts to build. He also reminded us that a king must come up with a battle plan before going out to war. Of course they do, and so should we.

In the book of Habakuk, God gave Habakuk a vision and told him to write it down and make it clear. We need to take what the Lord is showing us, write it down, and chart a course. The Lord will direct us even if we take a wrong turn. That is what is awesome about a GPS, it recalculates and get’s us back to where we need to be if we get turned around.

“Get a PLAN for your life and spend time each day LIVING that plan.”

Don’t be like many people who are just taking a drive and wasting gas, be intentional and missional in all that you do. What’s your plan?