God-honoring leaders place extreme importance on values in long-range planning. Read Micah 2:1-5.

Micah shows us what it looks like when leaders eliminate godly values when making plans for the future. He paints a picture of leaders who plan evil and carry it out “because they have the power to do it.” Israel’s leaders forced their plans on the poor and oppressed who were unable to stop them. The government, religious, and business leaders were defrauding them of their homes and inheritance. Through Micah God gave a stern warning that He would thwart the schemes of those who plan and plot evil for their own gain.

Effective leaders interpret the times, see the future and determine the action steps needed to get there. Read Joel 3:1-21.

The nations around Judah and Jerusalem insulted God by the way they treated His people. The last chapter of Joel pronounces judgment on these nations. While the nations around Judah will be judged, God gives hope to the Jewish people by telling them He plans to use them in the process if they take a few steps to right their relationship with Him as they move into the future.

Long-range planning is an integral characteristic of effective leadership. Read Isaiah 37:21-26.

God is the ultimate long-range planner. He had a plan for the entire universe from before its beginning through the future beyond our ability to explain it. Isaiah communicates in chapter 37 that God also had a plan for the Assyrian Empire from its rise to power several thousand years before the birth of Christ to its fall to the Babylonian Empire. God’s plan included great military success for Sennacherib, king of Assyria and an embarrassing attempt to capture Jerusalem that ended in his withdrawal to handle an uprising at home without capturing the city.

A leader’s preparation plus God’s leading and blessing will equal a successful long-range plan. Read Isaiah 30:1-5.

Isaiah was prophesying in a time when Israel was not the military power it had been under David and Solomon’s rule. Assyria was the dominate military power and they had already captured several fortified cities in Israel and Judah. Eventually, in 722 BC Israel, the northern kingdom made up of ten of the 12 tribes of Jacob, fell to Assyria. The Jewish leaders had a choice to make. Either they would trust God to save them from military defeat by His power or they would make alliances with powerful neighbors who held Assyria as a common enemy.

A leader must plan or they cannot lead. Read Isaiah 29:13-16.

Planning is always difficult and at times even arbitrary. Leaders forecast by reading trends and analyzing the culture. Even with all the best information a leader’s plans are still only a “best guess.” Today’s scripture verses don’t condemn planning; rather, they add a critical element to planning: trusting and honoring God both in the process and in working out the action plan.