Text: Luke 15:17-23
Memory verse:
“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬ ‭

An author of personal time management, Alan Lakein once said, “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” It is not doing but thinking ahead. It is a mental activity, an intellectual process, that involves creative thinking, sound judgment and imagination, rather than wishful thinking or guess work. It is thinking through a task. While vision is a foresight, that is, seeing into the future, planning is a forethought, that is, thinking into the future. Wise planning involves both foresight and forethought. One major problem of the prodigal son was that he didn’t sit down to think before he ventured into that failed project. Since he didn’t embrace mental work, he ended up with menial work. However, his latter was enviable because he decided to think this time before he started his return home project. Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭17‬ ‭(NLT) says “When he finally came to his senses..” When he decided to apply his common sense to think, he took inventory of his life, where he was before, where he was then, where he wanted to be. He set out action plans, step by step objectives on how to reach his desired place. He decided he would return, what he would say to his father, the self-sanction he would suggest to his father and the request he will make. He thought all these through before he set out. What a plan! His father eventually did more than he could ever ask, think or imagine (Eph 3:20). At first, because he didn’t have a plan, he wasted his inheritance.
Spirituality is not opposed to strategic thinking. Knowledge acquired, facts and information gathered will only profit you if you think them through. It is through thinking that you articulate them to your personal life. Even divine inspiration has to be processed through your mind to be useful for you. This is what is called wisdom.

Prayer points
1. Father, please, help me to be committed to planning and creative thinking in Jesus name
2. Father, please, help me to cultivate the habit of seeing and thinking into the future in Jesus name

Today’s declarations
1. God is committed to doing exceedingly abundantly above what I think or imagine
2. I process inspiration, facts and information through thinking to get wisdom on what to do

Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng