For the next few days I want to look at Proverbs 16. There is so much in this proverb that will help use understand both God and ourselves. Part one of this series will look at Proverbs 16 verses one thru three.
The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the LORD weighs the spirit.
Commit your work to the LORD,
and your plans will be established.
(Proverbs 16:1-3 ESV)
The beginning of this proverb focus on the things of man and the things of God. We see in verse 1a that the plans belog to the man. We also see in verse 2a that the ways of that same man seem pure to him. However when looking at 1b and 2b we see that the Lord is the one that is the judge of both the plan and the purity of those plans. We are then urged in vese three to commit these works to the Lord because when we do our “plans are established”.
These is of course just the starting verses of this proverb. This is the setup for the rest of what is to be said. The author wants us to understand that we to often think that our plans are our plans and that those plans great. However we are quickly corrected in verse three, and will see later in the following verses, that our plans many times our not pure and that our plans are never really ours anyway.
God is always there working out things for His glory. So even if we refuse the advice given in verse three and do not commit our plans to the Lord He still uses our bad and arrogant decisions for His glory and His good.
The question that the first three verses really ask us, without getting to far ahead of ourselves, are as follows:
1) What plans do you have that you think are good, but may very well need to be corrected or simply committed to the Lord?
2) Would you be o.k. with God establishing your plans but them not working out like you think they should? Are you ok with Him getting all the glory and you getting none of it?
Pastor Mike Moore 