It's fun to dream. It's exciting to create a vision for the future.

Maybe it's a business plan you're writing. Or maybe it's a life-plan that covers a number of areas in your personal life.

Read a few books and you'll discover all kinds of ways to make plans. There are even more methods for insuring that you actually carry out the plans you've made. We live in a fast-paced, information-economy world today. Systems to make and keep plans abound!

But there is only one absolutely critical thing to do when making your plans (or when trying to fulfill them). Ironically, this thing is almost always missing in the books and systems the world produces.

Fortunately, Solomon tells us what that one critical thing is. He tells us in the Bible. And it's amazingly simple.

Pray.

In your prayers, commit your daily actions and your plans to the Lord. And he will help you progress forward with those plans.

All the great men of the Bible did this -- from Abraham, to Joseph, to David, to Isaiah, and finally, to Jesus, to Peter and to Paul.

What gets us away from this is our bias toward action. We often feel nothing productive is happening unless we're doing something. We feel like we have to be drawing up the plans, or charting the progress, or taking the next step.

But Solomon reminds us that for our plans to succeed, it's actually far more important for God to take action!

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans" (Proverbs 16:3, NIV).

Lord, I commit my actions today to you. And I ask you to take action, and to bless and establish my plans.

Our Bible reading for Monday, June 19, is 1 Kings 22:1-53, Acts 19:14-41 and Proverbs 15:31 - 16:7.

Header image based on "database plan" by tec_estromberg, CC By 2.0