“Let Me dream for you:” How to Let God Plan Your Life
If you’re signed up for our weekly newsletters, The Vine, you’ll probably remember this quote from Monday’s edition:
“Let’s just be honest: May is always a busy month for everyone. We get wrapped up in our schedules and agendas, which includes everything from graduations to prepping for summer trips.
But God wants us to know something as we bloom into this new month that holds the sunshine of spring and brings the excitement of summer.
He wants us to carve time out of our busy schedules to sit down with Him, be still, stop our fighting, and plan with Him.
I don’t know what He’s calling you to plan. Maybe He wants you to revisit those New Year goals He gave you back in December/January. Maybe your birthday is coming up and He wants you to plan your new year with Him. Or maybe He just wants to get your attention and give you some new dreams—ones that will be better suited for you than the ones society has given you that you’ve adopted as your own dreams.”
Planning with God probably sounds as thrilling as it does terrifying. Because really . . . how do we sit down and plan with the God Who has infinite wisdom and created the entire universe using that wisdom?
The short answer? One prayer, Bible verse, planner, and cute highlighter at a time.
The long answer? By realizing that God really does want the best for us . . . and that when we let go of our dreams, He then can give us the better ones He has for our lives.
So if you’ve been feeling stuck in your current life, drowning in daily chaos, or just need a system for planning the details of your life, then let us share with you some fundamental tips for how to plan with God. Let us show you the ways that you can seek God’s face, receive His dreams and plans for your life, and subsequently feel the peace that comes from knowing your life is tucked away in the hands of the all-knowing Creator.
Seriously . . . your life (and dreams, wishes, and plans) have never been in better hands!
Why Plan?
The most essential reason why we should spiritually and strategically plan with God stems from the truth that He Himself is a planner! Genesis 1:1 states that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” and Psalm 104:24 exclaims, “How countless are Your works, Lord! In wisdom You have made them all.”
God’s character is vast, awe-inspiring, and worthy of praise. His character is more than we can possibly learn about Him in our own lifetimes. But what these two verses make clear is that God is a creative Deity Who, in wisdom, planned the foundations of the heavens and the earth.
If the God of the entire universe is not beyond utilizing strategic planning, what makes us think that we are?
Another reason why we should direct our efforts to planning with God rests in the image of the Proverbs 31 woman. Like God, she is a planner!
Even though not one verse in Proverbs 31 directly uses the word “plan,” we see how her daily operations and household functions rely heavily on the act of planning. Whether selecting wool and flax to weave, bringing her food from far away, providing clothing for her household, or seeing that her profits are good, it is evident that the Proverbs 31 woman must be a natural planner in order to accomplish these tasks.
Scripture might not paint her as a woman sitting down at a Pinterest-worthy desk with her aesthetic planner and highlighters from Amazon, but that woman was definitely taking the time to sit down and strategically plan her day-to-day life.
Let us remember, though (before we order our cute Amazon planners and sit down with pastel-colored highlighter poised over the first page) what Jesus said when He visited Martha and Mary’s house in Luke 10:
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary; Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).
Mary chose to sit at Jesus’s feet. Martha chose to prioritize her hospitality tasks. And I’m sure if the Proverbs 31 woman was in that household that day, she’d be sitting alongside Mary at Jesus’s feet and not running around frantically like Martha.
When we plan, let us do so at Jesus’s feet, and not distracted by the many tasks in front of us.
How to Plan
Now that we know why we should plan, we need to know how to plan.
Every woman plans differently. While bright-colored sticky notes might work for one woman, a productivity app might work for another. Despite what methods work best for you, there are three foundational elements that should happen every time you sit down and plan with God.
Mindsets
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).
I know that it can be intimidating to sit down, imagine God sitting right across from you, and then stare at a blank page. Your mind might race with questions like, “How do I do this? What am I supposed to write down? Isn’t this weird?”
The most fundamental element of planning with God is this: your faith mindset.
You can sit down at a desk or coffee shop table with all the right materials and methods. You can have the biggest-sized planner and the cutest highlighters and pens. But if you don’t have the right mindset of faith, then you’re not planning with God. You’re just planning with yourself.
So, to get into the right mindset, repeat these truths to yourself:
My God is wise.
My God knows the answers.
My God knows the future.
My God knows what’s best for me.
Lastly, as long as you internalize Proverbs 1:7 and remember that all knowledge and wisdom begins with a “fear of the Lord” (aka: respect of the Lord), you will be better able to listen to God as He reveals His dreams and plans for your life.
“Delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart,” says Psalm 37:4. So before you ever start planning, delight yourself in the Lord, who is the beginning of all knowledge and wisdom.
Materials
Okay, so here’s the more “fun” part: the tools you use to plan.
Again, every woman is different. I’ve seen different planning systems ranging from sticky notes on a wall to aesthetic Notion pages on Pinterest. However, it’s important that you choose the materials that are best suited for your type of thinking and learning.
Really, if you haven’t been a big “planner” type before this, this step is going to take some faith, research, and trial and effort on your part. However, once you learn more about how your own brain thinks and how that best translates into a planning system (sticky notes, Notion pages, journals, etc.), then you’ll be better able to determine what materials work best for you.
Here’s what I currently use for my own personal planning with God:
Honestly, this system that uses both physical and technological planners has been in the making for years now. But, I know it works best for me.
As you get started in your planning journey with God and learn more about the materials and systems best suited to your thinking style, here’s a list of standard materials to consider:
pencils
planners
and of course, a cup of coffee or tea!
Methods
Once you’ve set the right faith mindsets and have your materials ready, it’s time to tackle the methods of planning. While most people might focus on only one or two of the following methods, you might want to experiment with all five to find your own best system. And again . . . God is the beginning of wisdom. Let Him guide you in choosing one or several of these methods!
Day - What tasks/goals are you going to accomplish today?
Week - What tasks/goals are you going to accomplish this week?
Month - What tasks/goals are you going to accomplish this month?
Quarter - What tasks/goals are you going to accomplish this quarter?
Year - What tasks/goals are you going to accomplish this year?
Again, you can choose to focus on one or two methods, or maybe you want to include all five! Either way, remember to rely on God to determine the best method(s) for you. Personally, I use a combination of all five. My yearly goals will determine my quarterly goals, which will trickle down into my monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
If you’re just beginning this process of faithfully and regularly planning with God, I recommend just focusing on two: your weekly and daily goals. From there, you can build perspective by branching into monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals!
What to Plan
By this point, you might have everything for your planning session with God set in your head: you’re situated at your home office or at your local coffee shop, and all your planning materials are laid out neatly in front of you. You’ve repeated the truths of God’s character to get you in the right faith mindset and you’ve decided on the one or two methods of planning you’re going to focus on.
But now what? What do you plan?
Typically, in my own planning sessions with God, the Holy Spirit has revealed one of three things to me: dreams, goals, and tasks.
Now, while I can give you all the tips on what your mindset should look like and what materials you should buy, this is the part of the process where I must take a step back.
Because when it comes down to what you’re planning . . . that’s totally up to God.
He might give you dreams: visions for what your life might look like in one, five, ten, forty years from now.
He might give you goals: spiritual, physical, mental, and personal goals for your year, quarter, month, or week.
He might give you tasks: things you will do during a certain timeframe to reach those goals and dreams He has given you.
It’s not for me to say what dreams, goals, or tasks you should plan. Because again, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).
But I can tell you from experience, that whenever God pours these dreams, goals, and tasks into your spirit . . . there is nothing else like it. There’s no better feeling than receiving a direction and directive from God.
So don’t freak out when you’ve got the right mindsets, materials, and methods but you’re still sitting in front of a blank page. I’ll share with you a phrase God has often shared with me in my own special planning sessions with Him:
“Let Me dream for you.”
When God is dreaming for you . . . there’s really nothing for you to worry about. Even if you are sitting in front of a blank page right now.
There’s a song from the DreamWorks movie Prince of Egypt that captures the spirit of waiting on God’s vision and direction. This song demonstrates Joseph’s viewpoint while he waited and sat in prison, surrounded by dreams that did not seem like they were going to come true.
“You know better than I,
You know the way.
I let go the need to know why
for You know better than I.”
The last two lines touch my heart every single time I hear it. Because as a Type A overambitious planner, I find it hard to let go of my dreams, my goals, and my tasks in lieu of God’s visions for my life.
But there’s something . . . relieving in knowing I can let go of the need to know why God wants a certain dream or goal for my life. Because at the end of the day, He’s the One Who created the universe with wisdom, strategic planning, and creativity. And who am I (the creation) to pretend that I know better than my Creator?
He really does know better than I.
So whenever we sit down with God to plan, whether that be at our dining room tables or coffee shop counters, let’s rest in the fact that God knows better than we do. Let’s remember that He wants what’s best for us.
And then let’s listen to Him as He dreams and plans grand things for our lives . . .
