For three improbable afternoons at the recent British Open golf tournament, Tom Watson continually stood near or atop the leader board, smelling victory at an event he had won five times before, but not in more than twenty-five years.

With each succeeding round and clubhouse interview, the spectacle became harder and harder to believe. Yet strangely, for the 59-year-old Watson, easy to explain.He was on a “game plan,” he repeatedly said, a secret code of attack he never revealed, except to say it existed and that he was on course with it. It was a game plan that took him to the 72nd hole and an eight-foot putt for par, inches away from an ageless wonder of a championship.

Game plans work. And though a slight bobble in execution at any point along the way can mean the difference between first and second, the fact remains that a good game plan can take you far-farther than you may have ever dreamed possible.

That’s why the apostle Paul could say it’s “not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). Yes, missed putts can still prove costly. Missed opportunities can still nag at us. But what we lack in perfection is more than made up for as we “press on” with a set purpose. Life with a game plan is always superior to life without it.

Pray this prayer: Lord, I know I can do better than just taking a hit-and-miss approach to life. I need a game plan. I need YOUR game plan. Help me to see it in your Word, and put it into practice every day.