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The first verb, commit, is a word that, in Hebrew, literally means “to roll.” Other passages such
as Genesis 29:3 and Psalm 22:8–9 likewise use the idea of “rolling” something to the Lord. The
idea is that we completely give something over to God in dependence upon Him. When we
“commit” our work to the Lord, we offer everything we do completely to Him.
The Hebrew syntax also reveals the idea that we commit our work to the Lord in order that our
plans will be established. We must do the first part if we expect God to fulfill the second part.
If we completely depend upon God in our work, He will “establish” our plans. That is, He will
“bring about” or “cause to happen” our plans. We can expect God to bring our work to fruition
in God’s way and in God’s time when we depend on Him in our efforts. Part of committing our
work to God, of course, is seeking and following God’s will; when our work aligns with God’s will,
then success will follow.
Proverbs, as a literary form, communicate general life principles and not exact promises. In other
words, we can generally expect God to bless our work when we operate according to His ways in
dependence upon Him. However, this does not mean we will never lose a job or have trouble in
our work. Instead, we can expect God to fulfill His promise of Romans 8:28, “We know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.”
When we commit our ways and our work to the Lord, He will bless our efforts according to His
perfect will in ways beyond our understanding. We should serve the Lord faithfully and then
leave the results to Him. Though we will still face times of difficulty, we can trust that God is
working for His ultimate good—and ours—through our efforts to please Him in our daily
vocation.
“Share your plans with the LORD, and you will succeed.”(Contemporary English
Version)
We believe that if we ask God to bless our plans, all will be well:
“Ask the LORD to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them
out.” (Good News Translation).
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Proverbs 16 3 encourages you to commit your plans to the Lord and your
thoughts will be established. But how do you give God your plans?
What is the Meaning of Proverbs 16 3?
Table of Contents
What is the Meaning of Proverbs 16 3?
Committing your plans to God
o Why we should commit our plans to God
5 Steps to Commit Your Way to God
Commit to the Lord Whatever You Do
Proverbs 16 3 says,
Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established.
Now that we have some Hebrew under our belts, let’s look at a few word
meanings in an English dictionary. We’ll be using the Oxford dictionary:
Finally, the word establish may be defined in the following ways:
Pledge or dedicate your use of energy, mental and physical effort to the
Lord, and your way of thinking and intentions will be set up on a
permanent basis.
Roll all your actions–good or bad–unto God and He will arrange your
thoughts, purpose, and intentions.
Giving our plans over to the Lord sounds great, especially when we know the
end result is that He will establish our purposes. But as people who are
sometimes unwilling to give up control or the even the appearance of it, it can
be hard to let go and let God.
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I love making plans. I like to visualize
something and think of the different steps I believe will get the results I want.
But often, my plans don’t work out the way I imagined them.
Something (or more likely, some things always go wrong) and pretty soon I’m
left with mangled plans and broken dreams.
But here’s the thing about God, nothing surprises Him. The future is laid out
before Him like a path. When we submit our plans to the Lord, He knows
exactly what’s going to happen and at what time.
He’s a master planner. God has backup plans for your backup plans. For every
problem you have, He has a million solutions, and He knows how each one of
those situations will turn out.
I don’t know about you but I’m excited to turn my plans over to God.
1. Start with prayer and Bible study. I know, this is not what you thought I
was going to say. But here’s the thing, if we’re going to commit the dreams of
our heart to someone, we have to know them intimately. We get to know God
through His Word and prayer.
As Christians, we tend to approach our quiet time like another item to check
off our list. Sometimes we’re not so good at focusing on what matters. We
forget to search the Scriptures to discern the character of God. We forget to
pour our hearts out to Him as we invest in our relationship.
2. Give up. Stop trying to control everything. I’m not saying don’t make plans,
by all means, dream, visualize, plot…but understand that at the end of the day
it is God’s will that is going to prevail.
3. Expect the unexpected. When you five your plans to God, understand that
things may not always turn out the way you expect it to. That’s because
sometimes the dreams we have for our lives or the direction we want to go in
is not what God wants for us.
There maybe times when God allows our plans to play out exactly as we had
hoped though it’s not His best desire for us but that’s not always the case,
especially when we give Him control over everything.
4. Expect a battle. Do you think the enemy is going to sit back and watch you
take in God’s blessings? He’s not. He’s going to do everything he can to
discourage you and get you to disobey and mistrust God.
Get your armor on, girl and fight for what God wants to give you.
5. Trust God. This final one may not seem like an actual step but it’s a
reminder that will save you many times from falling into despair.
Remembering to trust God will encourage you when you start to feel
discouraged. It will remind you that though you don’t understand what He’s
doing, you know He’s working on your behalf.
I don’t know about you, but I would not want some of my intentions and
thoughts to be made permanent. There are negative mindsets that I’m still
trying to overcome. Can you imagine if a prayer would result in these
ideologies becoming permanent?
Instead, God wants His people to spend their time and their energies pursuing
Him. When we do, He will change us from the inside out. He changes our
sinful, earthly desires and replaces them with what He wants for us.
Our desires become God’s desires and then, only then will we have the things
we crave.
In the case of this proverb, we see the principle repeated in Psalms 37:4. The
psalmist says, “Commit your way to the Lord and he will give you the desires
of your heart.”
Let us roll our plans unto the Lord knowing that He has what’s best for us in
mind and that He is perfect and knows everything. Share your thoughts on the
meaning of Proverbs 16 3. How does it apply to us today?