Don’t Plan Without God

Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass —Psalm 37:5

Don’t plan without God. God seems to have a delightful way of upsetting the plans we have made, when we have not taken Him into account. We get ourselves into circumstances that were not chosen by God, and suddenly we realize that we have been making our plans without Him— that we have not even considered Him to be a vital, living factor in the planning of our lives. And yet the only thing that will keep us from even the possibility of worrying is to bring God in as the greatest factor in all of our planning.

In spiritual issues it is customary for us to put God first, but we tend to think that it is inappropriate and unnecessary to put Him first in the practical, everyday issues of our lives. If we have the idea that we have to put on our “spiritual face” before we can come near to God, then we will never come near to Him. We must come as we are.

Don’t plan with a concern for evil in mind. Does God really mean for us to plan without taking the evil around us into account? “Love . . . thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). Love is not ignorant of the existence of evil, but it does not take it into account as a factor in planning. When we were apart from God, we did take evil into account, doing all of our planning with it in mind, and we tried to reason out all of our work from its standpoint.

Don’t plan with a rainy day in mind. You cannot hoard things for a rainy day if you are truly trusting Christ. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:1). God will not keep your heart from being troubled. It is a command— “Let not. . . .” To do it, continually pick yourself up, even if you fall a hundred and one times a day, until you get into the habit of putting God first and planning with Him in mind.

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別在神以外籌算

當將你的事交託耶和華，並倚靠它，他就必成全。 （詩三十七5）

別在神以外籌算，我們很多時為事情籌算，卻沒有把神放在裡面；在這情況下，神往往用他奇妙的方法破壞我們的計畫。我們闖進不是神所安排的環境裡去，才猛然發覺自己在神以外行事，沒有讓神成為生活的主導。若要除去憂慮，唯一的辦法是把神帶到我們一切的籌算裡，讓他成為最大的動因。

在宗教上，我們曉得該把神放在首位，但在實際的日常生活裡，卻無法把他放在第一位。若我們必須披上星期日的精神狀態才來親近神，那麼，我們就永不會親近神。我們必須按自己的本相來到神面前。

不要計算惡事，神真要我們不計算惡事嗎？ [愛……不計算人的惡。 ]愛並非不知惡的存在，而是不把惡計算。離開了神，我們便會計算惡；我們會從惡的立場去籌算、去推斷。

別為未來的困境籌算，你若信靠主耶穌，就不會為未來籌謀。耶穌說：[你們心里不要憂愁。 ]神不會叫你的心沒有憂愁，而是[不要……]，那是一項命令。因此一日之中，儘管是一百零一次，總要逼自己遵行，直至養成習慣，事事把神放在首位，一切的籌算有他在內。

祈禱◆[你們奉我的名無論求什麼，我必成就。 ]噢，主啊，那是多麼的奧妙，又是多麼的簡單——我祈求，同時相信你會藉著我的禱告，創造一些前所未有的東西，來答允我的祈求。