Image via Wikipedia “Success literature” refers to how-to-be-successful books and articles. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Think and Grow Rich! How to Win Friends and Influence People. Who Moved My Cheese? It’s a popular topic! Do a search on Amazon for books with the keyword “success” and you’ll have to plow through a list of 384,515. Yes, that’s right – six figures, and that number is going up by the day. Some success literature is based on good psychological principles and can be helpful, so I’m not knocking the entire genre. But success literature cannot be a primary tool of transformation for the Christian. Why? Because classic success…

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) Just like everyone else in the world, Christians are busy with work, family, church, sports, hobbies, you name it. But all too often our busyness lacks a sense of God’s leading and will. We want to know God’s plan for our lives, but we secretly (or not so secretly!) think our dreams and desires don’t matter to Him. But they do. But God has a plan for your life. And that plan includes what you want to do. It includes the deepest desires of your heart. Sometimes we express these desires in ways…

We could talk about the Biblical word “plan” for goals and the planning that goes into them. Plans themselves can be blessed or not. God has plans and so do people. God blesses righteous plans and blasts away ones that aren’t so righteous! Above all, plans are subject to the will of God. Is goal setting and planning even Biblical? You bet! God gives people plans: [King David] gave [Solomon] the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the…