Join us today for an episode about the reason faith and planning aren't exclusive...

Today's episode is focused on why planning can be spiritual when done right...

In today’s spiritual foundation episode about investing in others, I talk with you about what it means to plan as a Christian, the balance between old and new, and making room for the spirit in spiritual planning.

Join in on the Chat below.

00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on episode 622 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Mario Porrecca from 10 minute mindset, the podcast. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasure is to live out your calling. Having the right inspiration to set your mindset on the right path is key.
00:00:26 And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my good friend Scott made her. And you're being aware of this. Being open to this kind of idea is part of what, uh, creates the moment for the supernatural to act for the Holy spirit to show up and give us those spiritual gifts of wisdom and knowledge and prophecy and all of the other things that come with being a person of spirit.
00:01:07 Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. And the inspired stewardship podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world. In today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in others,
00:01:42 I talk with you about what it means to plan as a Christian. I talk about the balance between old and new and I share about making room for the spirit when you're doing spiritual planning, When you talk to Christians about setting goals and making plans, it's interesting you, you get a bunch of different reactions. You know, there are definitely Bible passages that talk about planning and that talk about the good idea of planning.
00:02:14 You know, Luke chapter 14, verse 28, suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Why don't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it. And if you don't, you're a fool basically. To paraphrase, uh, you know, there's also ones where they talk about that the Lord has plans for us or that plans fail without counsel.
00:02:37 So it's definitely something that is biblical. It's talked about in uh, in the Bible and it's talked about in the Christian circles. And yet sometimes when I talk about planning or setting goals as a Christian, I get one of two push-backs. One is that I have faith in what the Lord has his plans for me and therefore I don't need to set plans for myself.
00:03:01 And I get that there's some truth to that. And then the other one is sort of the fact that oftentimes when we make plans as Christians, we end up just leaving God completely out of the plan. We don't use the spirit or, or God or any sort of prayer or anything else to set plans. And I know at times I'm guilty of that myself.
00:03:23 We'll, I'll, I'll, I'll call a meeting with a bunch of Christians and I won't even open with prayer. We won't take that moment to pause and think about things in terms of the spirit. And so I was reading a, an article the other day by Mark Roberts and I'll try to remember to put a link to that in the show notes as well,
00:03:45 where he talked about planning and goals as a Christian and is there room for the Holy spirit in that process. And I really appreciated this idea of how can we stop and when we make plans as a church or when we make plans, if we're people of faith, how can we make sure that we allow God into that process, that we allow the Holy spirit into that process.
00:04:12 Because I definitely think there are many times where I know I have not done that. And it's something that I think is really important for us to focus on as a Christian and especially within Christian organizations. You know, long range planning and those sorts of things oftentimes ends up being something that that drives us away from a Christian thought. Within the article there were nine specific tips that Reverend late the Rever laid out that we could,
00:04:48 we could pay attention to. And Reverend Roberts talked about a lot of different things, but I'm only going to highlight a few of them. You know, the, the idea at its core, the first two or three tips that he had was to reflect and make sure that you're explicitly looking for the biblical basis of things that, not in terms of finding scripture that supports your view,
00:05:14 but in terms of looking for the theological themes that are present in the Bible, is what you're setting your plans about. Is it about growing you or is it about serving others? Is it about taking care of people who perhaps cannot take care of themselves or who remain undefended? You know, while I'm recording this, there's protests going on and it makes me think about this because one of the things that I struggle with is I can see a lot of different viewpoints going on and I agree wholly with many of them because truly I know I'm privileged to be where I am and to have what I have and to be safe and dry and warm and not have to worry about getting pulled over by the police and being shot just because of the color of my skin.
00:06:03 But I also think that violence can be destructive. And at the same time, I know if I keep asking and asking and trying and trying and peacefully protesting, but it never gets listened to, I can understand how violence comes about. And I think a lot of times when we as Christians begin to think about planning, we move away from looking for the fact that we're serving others and taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves and just look to the practical.
00:06:35 And that drives us the wrong direction. The other thing that he highlights is something about the past. And the future, and I'll come back to that. But the other areas that are highlighted is look for the supernatural. Look for the idea that God uses us for God's purpose, find God's purpose and show up there. Recognize that discernment and the Holy spirit will show up in a Christian environment or in a godly environment and then paying attention and seeking out the kingdom of God.
00:07:08 But the two that really hit me, because they're kind of that both and that I'm constantly looking for, is to both acknowledge the past, but also to be open to the idea that new wine requires new wineskins. That doing something new is important. To be able to find that balance between recognizing the value of the past and the traditions and what has gotten us here while at the same time being open to the idea that sometimes something new is coming and the only way to do that is to let go sometimes of something old.
00:07:50 It's a weird balancing act and it's one that I am not easy with. I often find myself holding onto the past out of fear as opposed to being open to the future. I think it's not easy. I think most people fall either where they're constantly looking for the new indifferent or they're constantly holding onto the past. And I don't think either one of those is easy.
00:08:19 Where we're comfortable with or where we want to change tends to be the places that we're looking for those things. But the reality is often God wants us to change the thing that we're not comfortable changing and wants us to keep the same. The thing that we wish would change and that balance, that recognition that what God is speaking into our life may or may not match up with exactly what we want is part of what happens to make,
00:08:53 to make it possible, to plan in a godly way. And you'll being aware of this being open to this kind of idea is part of what, uh, creates the moment for the supernatural to act for the Holy spirit to show up and give us those spiritual gifts of wisdom and knowledge and prophecy and all of the other things that come with being a person of spirit that at times are the things that allow us,
00:09:26 allow us to grow, allow us to change and allow us to bring the spirit into our planning and to be godly at the same time that we are planning to be people of faith and people of worldly planning at the same time. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
00:10:02 but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.
00:10:35 Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.


In today's episode, I talk with you about:

  • What it means to plan as a Christian... 
  • The balance between old and new...
  • Making room for the spirit in spiritual planning...
  • and more.....

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? - Luke 14:28

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About the Author Scott

Helping people to be better Stewards of God's gifts. Because Stewardship is about more than money.

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