As I get ready to do my yearly vision board party and make it an event so more women can join me this time I’m reminded of how necessary prayer is to this process. You can plan and pursue anything you want but if you are God’s daughter you won’t have peace, even if your plans and pursuits bring you worldly success if they don’t line up with His plan for you.
There’s an old saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.”
It’s so important to take everything to the Lord in prayer because His plans for you may not be the same plans you have for yourself and His plans will stand (see Proverbs 19:21). I know this to be true. I’ve had many plans and started many pursuits by getting caught up in what people think I should do, what my talents, gifts and abilities are and what I think I should be doing. But they did not stand up against prayer. Why? Because we are God’s workmanship created anew in Christ Jesus for the good works He, (not we) planned ahead of time, that we should walk in them. (See Ephesians 2:10)
When you spend time with the Lord each day, morning by morning, He directs your steps to line up with His plans and changes your pursuits.Â
Have you asked God if your plan is anywhere close to His plan? If you are going through life pursuing your own plan you may end up starting over again and again. I’m prone by nature to do things my way but because of my intimate relationship with the Lord, His Spirit leads me in the right path even when I want to  do my own thing and go the wrong way.
You don’t even have to pray through each plan and pursuits, necessarily, though you should. Just having a consistent, intimate relationship with the Lord will give Him the time needed to speak into your life, if you are willing to listen.
I have started things that I planned and just by reason of having daily times of prayer, the Lord has redirected me. We’ve even had tug of wars when I did not want to let go of something but His will prevailed. Like Paul, it is hard for us to kick against the pricks of the Holy Spirit, when He has another plan (Acts 26:14).
If there’s something that I could advice you while pursuing your dreams it would be pray through each one and  to know your seasons.
Through prayer, I was able ,time and again to say not my will by His be done. I don’t know that I could have heard or yielded to the Spirit if it weren’t for prayer. And I’m so thankful because His plan is better than mine.Â
It’s important to know which season you are in. Sometimes we pursuit things out of its season. God has different things for you in the different seasons of your life. Know your seasons, be content and enjoy each one of them.
It gets easier to trust and obey.
We will all make mistakes while learning to follow the Lord. The key is to fall forward and allow Him to redirect us when we get it wrong.The Bible says, Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered, (Hebrews 5:8). Suffering is a good teacher. When we don’t run from God through it but submit to Him in we are blessed. Don’t try to save face with people, do what God tells you.
Beloved, know that real success is knowing the will of God for you life and being right smack dab in the middle of it, even it if it’s not glamorous or what you had imagined. In that in that day, and it will come, He will say to you “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest.”
Below are some free resources to help you pray through your dreams and visions.
You can’t get my prayer workbook here:Prayer Book
You can learn more about making Christian vision boards here:How to make a Christian Vision Board
And you can read part of my  testimony of pursuits here: More about me
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