Saturday, February 27th, ‘10

Saturday, February 27^th, ‘10

FLYING BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS

“…he himself knew what he would do” (John 6:6)

How often do we approach a situation and just start doing, no forethought, no plan, just winging it? A prudent man, on the other hand, “foresees danger and takes precautions…” (Prov 22:3 NLT) He has a game plan. Not everyone may agree with it, but at least he won’t be accused of not knowing what he is doing. Jesus “knew what he would do”. That statement was made right before He broke the loaves and fishes and had His disciples feed the 5,000. That wasn’t just an idea. Jesus said He “could do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do…” (John 5:19) He knew what He would do because He had already seen the miracle acted out in prayer. We fly by the seat of our pants when we don’t wear out the knees of our pants in private prayer.

Noah had a plan before he started in on the Ark. Moses was to make sure that the Tabernacle was constructed “after their pattern, which was shown you in the mount” (Exo 25:40). You don’t build a house without a blueprint, so why would you enter into business, marriage or life just shooting from the cuff. A gun needs aim. On the firing range you aim at a target so bullets don’t wander off and hit the barn across the road or cars in the parking lot. Someone said if you aim at nothing you’ll be sure to hit it. The prudent are a little more committed to their course than that. When Paul said, “I have finished my course”, it implies that he could see where mile markers were, knew where out of bounds was, and had a clear view of the finish line.

But we read where Joseph one time was just “wandering in the field” (Gen 37:15). Joseph wasn’t his normal self that day. The young man normally governed his day according to the dreams he had. But far too many young people today are wandering in the field, no plans for college, no work skills, they’ve stayed indoors playing computer games half their lives and after graduation don’t know what they’re going to do. Guess, I’ll just wing it. You may get to Topeka on a wing and a prayer but you won’t end up second in command over Egypt like Joseph did. That boy had to quit wandering and buckle down. So must we all.