Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)
Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.
We have here a proverb expressing total trust to our God concerning the plans that we make. Christians are not robots. God does not input or program plans into our minds so that we will do what He wants. We have been created with a will, with reasoning, which is what differes us from animals. People plan. We think, we imagine, we desire. The difference with one who walks with God is that he/she realizes that his/her plans alone are not what matter. There is Someone greater, Someone sovereign, Someone in charge of His life. This is what moves us to commit.
This is why it is important for us to really understand what this proverb means. Many read this, and "claim" it, to mean that everything that we commit the Lord WILL cause to succeed. And He will, because this is His promise. But the understanding of that success needs to be in the context of who our God is, not just in what we desire.
To commit in Hebrew means "to roll, roll away" (NASB Greek concordance). Picture a ball rolling away from your hand. This is what it means to commit. In our minds we may have plans, in our hearts we may have desires. Now, what the Lord asks from us is to roll it away from our minds and hearts and into His hands. When we commit our plans to the Lord we do not insist, nor expect, that automatically it will come to pass according to how and what we have imagined it to be. It is now in the Lord's hands. We need to trust Him to bring the success that He has prepared for us.
We also need to understand this proverb according to the two preceding proverbs in chapter 16:
[1] To man belong the plans of the heart,
but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.
We may plan, but the outcome is all in the hand of our God. God wants us to plan but He wants us to remember that what happens in our life is all in the hand of our Sovereign God. God is not a puppet who, because we ask Him to, will accomplish our plans for us. He is the One orchestrating events and circumstances of our life. Everything that actually happens is part of His working. And His promise is that all things will work out for good to the one who loves Him and who He has called into His kingdom (Romans 8:28)
So, go ahead and plan, but remember that the actual "reply" comes from God.
[2] All a man's ways seem innocent to him,
but motives are weighed by the LORD.
When we plan, when we have desires, all of them look innocent and right to us. But there is a God who knows better than we do. And, there is a God who knows the motives of our hearts.
How do we know that our plans will really be good for us?
How do we know that our plans are spiritually beneficial for us?
How do we know if we will truly glorify God when our plans are implemented?
We don't. This is why our trust should be in the God who knows the motives of our hearts.
These two proverbs remind us why we need to commit to the Lord all our plans. We roll them over to God, surrendering ourselves to His sovereign plan for us, and having Him judge the motives of our hearts, and bring to fruition all the plans that will truly glorify His name in our life, that will truly be good and beneficial for us now and eternally.
Commit to the Lord whatever you do.
