God’s Will? Or Our Way?

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. (Proverbs 16:3)

Life presents us with two choices at every moment: We can either choose to follow God’s will for our lives or go our own way. The first way leads to fruitfulness; the second leads to fruitlessness. The choice is always ours.

King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived apart from Jesus, penned today’s proverb to offer us the key that unlocks the door leading to a life marked by faithfulness and fruitfulness. You can be sure that Solomon fully understood the importance of committing his plans to the Lord at the time he wrote these words. It was Solomon — not his father, David — whom God had tasked with building His Temple. Solomon built the Temple of God, and during this time he also built his life upon the Word of God. All was well in his life and in the lives of those living under his rule, because Solomon had chosen to follow God’s will rather than go his own way.

But as time went by, Solomon began to change. He married multiple wives, which was contrary to God’s ordained plan for marriage, and some of his wives did not know the Lord. Over time, these unbelieving women began to turn Solomon’s heart away from God and toward idol worship. More and more, Solomon did what was right in his own eyes. His affections were divided, and he failed to commit his whole heart to the Lord. So the Lord no longer established his plans.

It is important to see just how today’s passage is structured. You could read the verse like this: Commit your work to the Lord in order for the Lord to establish your plans. In other words, if we are not committing our work to the Lord, we have no reason to expect our Lord to establish our plans. On the other hand, when we align our work with God’s will in our lives, we can expect that God will give us good success in His perfect timing and in His perfect way.

We must remember that God’s blessings on our work is always according to His will, often in ways that far exceed our understanding. This means that “success” will not always look like what we expect. Yet the plans our Lord will establish in our lives will actually be our plans if we strive to live our lives in harmony with the revealed will of God. When we don’t get the results we were looking for, we always get something vastly better. When we commit to the Lord whatever we do, we can confidently leave the results up to God, trusting that He is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).

Have you been living a life marked by God’s will? Or are you merely following your own way? Remember, the size of the matter you commit to the Lord matters not. Whether big or small, commit your life to following the righteous plan and purpose of your Lord, and He will make your plans work to a worthy end.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!