“The preparations 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 spirits. ”Commit your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established.” (Proverbs 16:1–3, NKJV)
The message of Proverbs Sixteen is that God is in control. No matter how much we plan, and no matter how much we think we control our own destiny, ultimately God was, is, and will always be in control. Even seemingly random things that happen have the Lord’s fingerprints all over them:
“The lot is cast into the lap; But its every decision is from the Lord.” (Proverbs 16:33, NKJV)
When we walk in the Spirit and seek to do what God wants, then we will find that He has been leading every decision we have made. He leads us, He guides us, He brings us where He wants us to go. However, when we are wanting our own way, mess up, and then repent, we get where God wanted us to be, only kicking and screaming. The question for me is, “Do I want to go the easy way or the hard way?”
Jonah is a classic example of this. He fought God. He ran from God. But when he finally surrendered to God, the fish vomited him up on the shore of the very place God wanted him to be in the first place!
Something to ponder.
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