What does God have for me on earth, while I await heaven? Or better, how I do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. If that is the prayer Jesus teaches us to pray (Matt. 6:9), how then should we live? As new creations in Christ, how do we order our steps? Do we make plans like we did before Christ, only acknowledging Christ now? Or does our planning look entirely different?

Welcome to Quitter’s Day.

Until this week, I didn’t even know that such a day existed. Sure, I was familiar with the fact that the gym seems a lot less crowded by the end of January. But I didn’t know that we coronated the breaking of New Year’s resolution with an unofficial holiday. But some do, and today USA Today even ran a brief article on it.

Apparently, the Second Friday of the new year is dubbed Quitter’s Day because of the way that so many plans have been broken in the new year. To speak personally, my own Bible reading plans were thrown off yesterday because an early morning meeting took the place of my typical morning devotion. Yet, today I picked up the plan again, read yesterday’s Psalm (and todays), and continued in my reading in Matthew. Such is life.

If we are going to make progress in the world, we must make plans and keep them. And I suspect that everyone who makes and breaks a new year’s resolution to eat better, work out more, or spend less money—these are the Big 3, apparently—still maintains other plans. It’s not possible to finish a degree, order a home, build a career, or lead a team without making and keeping plans. Yes, some of us are better than others at making plans and keeping them, but part of being human is to order our steps for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.

In Proverbs, there are many such passages that describe this way of planning. Consider a few. In Proverbs 15:22, we learn that “without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” More positively, Proverbs 20:18 says, “Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.” Later in Luke 14:31–33, Jesus will say something similar. When discussing what it takes to follow him, our Lord compared discipleship to kingship and the need to count the cost before engaging in war. Truly, planning is what kings do. And because humanity is given the task of ruling over the world, planning is part of what it means to be human.

Think about it. Before God made the world, he made a plan. And that plan included the “foundation of the world” (John 17), the storyline of history (Eph. 1:11; Rev. 13:8; 17:8), the cross of Christ (1 Pet. 1:20; cf. Acts 2:23; 4:27–28), and the election of every of sinner who would come to faith in Christ (Acts 13:48; Rom. 9:22–23). Indeed, the kingdom of God was not an after-thought in God’s mind; it was the reason why God created the world in the first place (Matt. 25:34). Though in time redemption came after creation, in the mind of God redemption in Christ came first. And thus, the world God made is filled with order, and if we are going to be like our Creator, we must order our days too. But how?

Three Ways to Order Your Life

In answer to the question, “How do I order my steps?” I want to offer three responses that set up our next sermon series (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, or B.I.B.L.E). These three responses are hardly sufficient to give you all the steps you will need, but they are a good start. And as we begin the new year, we need to consider how to order our steps to please the Lord.

First, ordering our steps is a biblical assumption and imperative.

Speaking analogically, God ordered his steps when he made the world. And when he made us in his image, he intended that we would also make plans in order to accomplish the tasks he has put before us. In truth, the plans we have are different than the plans of others generation, but ordering our steps is both assumed and commanded in Scripture.

Consider again the words of Proverbs. In Proverbs 16, we find three verses that stress the need and goodness of making plans.

Proverbs 16:1. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Proverbs 16:3. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

Proverbs 16:9. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

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