Your own ways versus committing your plans to the Lord

Proverbs 16:1-3 (Amplified Bible)

The plans of the mind and orderly thinking belong to man, but from the Lord comes the (wise) answer of the tongue. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits -- the thoughts and intents of the heart. Roll your works upon the Lord -- commit and trust them wholly to Him; (He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and) so shall your plans be established and succeed.

One of my most grateful experiences in my life was the day many years ago when I first read this passage.  At the time I read this, I was a young, rededicated Christian man who still had high ambitions to rise the corporate ladder and be as important, rich, and successful as I could possibly be.  After reading this, I realized, thankfully, that I was not including the Lord in my plans, my motives were strictly selfish and egotistical, and somehow I knew that if I continued as I was without the Lord’s involvement, I would fail.  Who knows what would have happened had I never be exposed to these truths, never included the Lord in my plans and never deviated from my selfish ways?  Interestingly, I will freely admit that by trying to follow these verses, I did not rise high at all in the corporate ladder and did not even meet most of the goals that I had originally established for my career.  Yet, without question in my own heart, my career, and, more importantly, my life have been highly successful. 

While I applied these verses to my professional life, they also apply in all other aspects of our lives---family, personal, and spiritual.  The NASB translation states for 16:3, “Commit your ways to the Lord and your plans will be established.”  By allowing the Lord to be included in your ways, actions, motives, and decisions, He will pave the way for you to be successful because you are following His way for your life and His way is better than anything you could imagine.  The Lord is eternal while your life is temporal.  He has eternity in mind for you and will enable you to live your short time on earth in ways that will bless you both here and for eternity.

Here are some simple truths to keep in mind that hopefully will change your life as they did mine:

1.    Wisdom comes from reverence for the Lord and His Word (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10).  Such wisdom will enable you to speak wisely.  Whenever I am giving a talk where I know what I’m going to say, but don’t know what questions I’ll be asked, I pray for wisdom in the use of my tongue.  Also, in general, everyday, I try to remember to pray for wise ways to communicate with others, especially when needing to be appropriately responsive in speech (and action).

2.   Humans are self-deceptive.  Without the Lord in your life, you may think that you are pure (flawless), but you are not.  Satan deceives people such that they cannot see their actions as wrong.  The Lord evaluates your heart and sees your motives and you cannot deceive him even if you are deceiving yourself.  Self-deception leads to many wrong actions and attitudes.

3.   If you follow the truth and wisdom of 16:3, many good things will happen because the Lord is in control of your life.  He will make your paths straight (Prov 3:6).  He will establish your plans that will result in successful living rather than your own flawed planning that most likely will fail.  Even worldly success experienced by godless people does not meet that they are successful in the eyes of the Lord. 

For the believer in the truth of the Lord’s Word, success will come naturally because you will be led to do what you love and what the Lord created you to do.  What do you love to do and what would you love to be?  Commit these to the Lord through daily prayer and trusting in Him and watch what He does.