Proverbs 16:3, Guidance – The Personal Side
October 14, Proverbs 16:3
Psalm 37 “The One who made us knows best how to rule us.”
Guidance – The Personal Side
God has a plan for all His redeemed children. Man is not left to grope for truth on his own, nor can he! Ps. 37 affirms, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Jesus said, He that follows me shall not walk in darkness (Jn. 8:12).
1. A Personal Submission: Commit thy works unto the Lord. Every true Christian should avow that all he or she does is done in, by and for God. His will must be paramount in every thought and deed. The believer knows no work can prosper apart from God’s help and direction. Sin brought man into rebellion and alienation with God. Saving faith restores to a place of absolute trust and dependence on God once again. “I delight to do Thy will, O my God” must be the spirit in which all duty is accepted and completed. All the old sinful strugglings, the unsettled mind, the disorders of life generally, have all but gone. “If you lay yourself at Christ’s feet He will take you into His arms” (W. Bridge).
2. A Peaceful Solution: Commit thy Works unto the Lord. This includes everything one does, but especially what one is. What we are determines the worth of what we do. Commit means to roll, the great work of your salvation, unto the Lord. Don’t try to lift it. You cannot, but you can roll it! The Psalmist commands us, Commit (Roll) thy way unto the Lord (37:5), but they mocked, saying, He trusted (rolled himself) on the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him (Ps. 22:7-8). You are commanded to lay that burden on the shoulders of One stronger than yourself, for He took it to Calvary’s Cross. He will not fail your trust. Believers find peace and growing faith in the God who guides, but this requires giving yourself first and fully to the Lord, as did the Macedonians (2 Cor. 8:5). God wants what you are before what you do (Rom. 12:1). This is the clear challenge. Are you totally committed to Christ? Have you rolled your burden of living onto the Lord? Are you trusting Christ for everything, small or great? Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee (Isa. 26). That’s a peaceful solution, indeed!
3. A Purposeful Satisfaction: The Great God is interested in all our works! These works were foreordained before the worlds (Eph. 2:10). The saved pursue them by a walk of faith, and they perform them as a work of love. Unless God is the motivation of all your service, your labour will be in vain. Only when you are a living sacrifice will you then be a labouring servant. How beautiful to know that those who walk by faith in obedience cannot miss the purpose God has for them. Satisfaction guaranteed (1 Cor. 15:58)! The true value of your service doesn’t depend on where or what it is, but only on whether it is in fulfilment of God’s will for you. Then you can pray, “Let my will be done, O Lord,-my will, because it is thine.” Our works, you see, will be no less our own because they are His, but they will be a lot less burdensome! That’s a purposeful solution!
Thought: “I know not the way God leads me, but well do I know my guide” (Luther).
Prayer: Lord, that I might be fully surrendered to Thy leading.