100 Bible Verses about Making Plans

Proverbs 16:9 ESV / 350 helpful votes

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16:3 ESV / 329 helpful votes

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 253 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 19:21 ESV / 252 helpful votes

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Proverbs 15:22 ESV / 237 helpful votes

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

James 4:13-15 ESV / 168 helpful votes

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Proverbs 21:5 ESV / 158 helpful votes

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

James 4:13-17 ESV / 143 helpful votes

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Luke 14:28-30 ESV / 132 helpful votes

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 124 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 16:1 ESV / 96 helpful votes

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Philippians 4:6 ESV / 76 helpful votes

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Ephesians 5:15-17 ESV / 68 helpful votes

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Psalm 20:4 ESV / 65 helpful votes

May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans!

Proverbs 20:18 ESV / 64 helpful votes

Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 53 helpful votes

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Proverbs 3:6 ESV / 48 helpful votes

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Luke 14:28 ESV / 47 helpful votes

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Amos 3:7 ESV / 45 helpful votes

“For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

Jeremiah 10:23 ESV / 40 helpful votes

I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

Isaiah 30:1 ESV / 40 helpful votes

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

Philippians 2:13 ESV / 35 helpful votes

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Matthew 6:34 ESV / 32 helpful votes

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Psalm 33:10-11 ESV / 32 helpful votes

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

John 3:16 ESV / 31 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 30 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV / 28 helpful votes

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Isaiah 46:10 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’

Philippians 1:6 ESV / 27 helpful votes

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 24:27 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

Psalm 127:1 ESV / 25 helpful votes

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 24 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 24 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Psalm 33:11 ESV / 24 helpful votes

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

Isaiah 55:9 ESV / 22 helpful votes

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Psalm 119:105 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

James 1:5 ESV / 20 helpful votes

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Luke 12:16-21 ESV / 20 helpful votes

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ...

Matthew 6:33-34 ESV / 20 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Psalm 90:12 ESV / 20 helpful votes

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Proverbs 6:6-8 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

James 4:13 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—

Philippians 4:6-7 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 17 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Isaiah 32:8 ESV / 17 helpful votes

But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Isaiah 30:21 ESV / 15 helpful votes

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 15 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

James 4:13-16 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Ephesians 6:10-18 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ...

Romans 12:2 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Proverbs 27:1 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

Proverbs 3:5 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Psalm 33:10 ESV / 13 helpful votes

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

Ephesians 5:15-16 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 1:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Acts 16:6-10 ESV / 12 helpful votes

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Proverbs 14:22 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Do they not go astray who devise evil? Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.

Micah 2:1 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

James 4:13-14 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Romans 8:18-25 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ...

Ephesians 6:12 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Jeremiah 1:1-19 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” ...

Proverbs 10:4 ESV / 9 helpful votes

A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.

James 4:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 25:1 ESV / 8 helpful votes

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ...

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Proverbs 24:3-4 ESV / 7 helpful votes

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Acts 7:44 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.

John 4:34 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Luke 1:37 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Proverbs 23:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.

Proverbs 3:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;

2 Samuel 7:1-29 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.” But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? ...

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, ...

James 4:1-17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? ...

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Ephesians 1:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

1 Corinthians 14:40 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But all things should be done decently and in order.

Luke 12:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

Matthew 6:25-34 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ...

Proverbs 20:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

Proverbs 12:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of evil devices he condemns.

Proverbs 3:31-32 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways, for the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.

Psalm 143:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

Romans 15:22-29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. ...

Matthew 11:28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Habakkuk 2:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

Isaiah 46:9-11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

Proverbs 17:1-28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife. A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers. The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue. Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished. ...

Proverbs 15:1-33 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit. A fool despises his father's instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent. ...

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