FAITH CAPSULE: Are you planning or does God do it? 

Matthew 25:1-13

God does the planning; we do the preparing. 
Seeking God is a plan of wanting to see God, but preparation is to seek God diligently to see Him.
The values you have to see God is the evidence rooted in your act and behavior.
In seeking God to find God, “What you do is what you believe; everything else is just religious talk.” 
The wise virgins value the invitation and adjust their behavior accordingly to be ready. 
They are women who have pure hearts, cultivate goodness, and guard their speech. 
They are righteous and have faith. 
In the parable, faithful waiting involves preparation and readiness, not planning and predicting.
The teaching encased ten virgins of Jesus points to being ignored by the world.
Are you preparing and ready?
Are you planning and predicting? 
Ten virgins waited.
Five virgins prepared.
Five virgins only had a plan.
Five virgins who got shut out represent irresponsible ones not prepared.
Preparation is calling upon God by seeking Him diligently.
Preparation is not seeking Him one way but having a relationship with God. 
Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches people about living and growing in a relationship with God. 
Jesus stresses that being spiritually alive means not just knowing religious information or being with a denomination but doing what Jesus teaches regarding love for God and neighbor.
The biblical truth is this: God does the planning; we do the preparing.
Jeremiah 29:11 informs us what God says: For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord.
In Genesis 12, God told Abram to begin a journey and didn’t even tell him where he was going. 
Abram couldn’t plan the itinerary but prepared by telling his family, wrapping up business details, packing his tent, and setting out. 
The Exodus from Egypt is a story of prayer and preparation. 
God planned the Exodus, but no person could. 
No one would have written the story God did, and Moses didn’t get to see the whole plan ahead of time. 
The Israelites prepared by marking their doors, taking everything, they could carry, eating fast food, and waiting for the word to move out. 
John the Baptist preached: “Prepare the way of the Lord.” He didn’t say, “Plan the way of the Lord.”
Are you planning in the place of preparing before God?
Proverbs 19: 21 informs all: There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
It is the wisdom and character of one who lives by the word of God (believer) to prepare in the place of the plan. 
All are limited to planning the future, much of what happens, but to give to prepare in watching and praying.
The biblical approach to the future involves prayer and preparation more than prediction and planning.
Prayer for today: Ask that seeking God in preparation be meaningful and established in your way of life before Him. (Seeking God diligently)
Ask that the plan of God for your life shall stand all the days he has given you.