How to Organize Your Life Based on God’s Purposes
This is for you if you have trouble organizing yourself
Was Jesus organized?
Can you be led by the Holy Spirit and respond to immediate opportunities to minister to others and still plan?
Jesus only had a little over three years to accomplish the most important mission in world history. Study His life and you see He was the perfect blend of disciplined organization and freedom to respond to immediate needs.
Some of us are more organized than others, some are better at responding to the moment than others.
But if you want to fully live all of God’s purposes for your life; having at least a basic plan really is necessary.
Confession: I am not a detail guy
I am much better at vision and overall principles and strategies, but my brain seems to shut off when it gets to smaller details.
When I was on staff of a large church, from time to time I would go to a meeting I had set up, only to have no one else be there because I had not notified them.
I was overseeing over 2,200 people, 5 pastors, 15 district leaders, and 45 coaches of 220 small groups. It had grown from 80 groups with 800 members to that size under my leadership, but I have never been good at detailed organization.
I have always needed other people to do “detail” things.
I Need a Simple Way to Organize My Life Around God’s Purposes
If you are a detail-oriented, super organized person, you are probably shaking your head that there are productive people who are not super organized. Or perhaps, you’ve already dealt with so many you want some way to help them.
More likely, since you’re reading this, you are like me. You realize it’s important to have a measure of organization, but it just hasn’t worked well so far.
Here’s a little encouragement that having a basic purpose plan is worth it.
In his book Making Things Happen, author Scott Belzky gives a productivity formula:
I x O = P
Idea x Organization = Productivity
A great idea, say a 100 x 0 = 0
In other words the greatest God idea with no organization will accomplish nothing.
50 x 2 = 100
Or, an average idea that is decently organized will accomplish something significant. We don’t have to be the most brilliant person or the most organized person in the world to do something powerful, but we do need a measure of both.
How to Start
- Get ready to write. If you hate to write, you don’t have to write a lot, but my friend, you will have to write. Less than 1 out of a million can keep everything in their head.
Haggai 2:2 God told the prophet to write down the vision He was giving him so the one who reads it can run with it. Writing down God goals helps us and others actually do them. As you know, even God’s word is written down.
Get a notebook or a laptop and get ready to write a few things down.
2. Write down your understanding of God’s Pillar Purposes. Before you freak out on how to do that, I use the five given in Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life. I word them like this
Relationship with Christ
Growing in Christlikeness
Relationships based on Christ’s Great Commandment
Gift/Talent Based Work: Christ’s Calling
Making Disciples: Christ’s Commission
Others like using Faith, Family, Friends, Finance, Fitness, Fun
Write those things down, maybe two to a page
3. Prayerfully write down your understanding of the main steps to live out each of those purposes.
For example, under “relationship with Christ”; Bible study, prayer, reflection, journaling, etc.
Under “Christlikeness”, write things like; spiritual disciplines, support, scheduling growth, etc.
Do that with each of the purpose categories you’ve written down.
4. Prayerfully put on the calendar the minimum times you will do each of those each week. Obviously, you will do some more than others. Your “work calling” will be much longer each day than your “condition” activities.
There is SO much research that shows if we write down when and how we’ll do something, we increase our success rate by around 80%. That is really significant!
5. Practice doing these purposes, then adjust. Start taking action right away! Don’t put it off, be a “doer of the word and not a hearer only.”
No one makes a perfect plan right away. But doing this will get you started. You can adjust as needed.
There are all kinds of specific steps you can learn to do these things better, but if you just do this you will be accomplishing much more than 80% of the church.
If you are interested in getting more focused, productive, and certain that you’re living all of God’s purposes for your life, head over to www.TruVineMission.com/coaching and set up a free “Live Your Purposes” Coaching session.
Biblical coaching has been a huge help in my life and in the lives of so many others. Andy Stanley wrote, “You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But you will never be as good as you could be without coaching.”
Why not make the most of the gifts, talent, and time God has given you? I would love to talk with you and help you live more of God’s purposes for your life.
