The Plans Are Yours—The Steps Are God’s (Proverbs 16:9)
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Proverbs 16:9
The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
This is a verse so good, so nice, I feel I have to read it twice.
‘The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.’
This verse gives us incredible insight into the relationship dynamic that is present with us and God.
We propose, God disposes. We devise, God directs.
God orders our every step without ever infringing our liberty. That is so crazy to me. It’s one of those things that just doesn’t really make sense to the human mind, but it's true. It's almost like outer space, ya know? Like, you mean to tell me that there are whole other planets out there, orbiting the same sun, and there are other galaxies too?
I mean, this world feels big enough as is. It’s crazy to think there are more – AND, to add, that we are the only life source because we just so happen to be the perfect distance by the sun. And I mean perfect because supposedly a few inches one way or another and our climate would either be too hot or too cold to support life. That’s wild. But it's true.
Same thing here. God orders our every step without ever infringing our liberty. Hard to believe and grasp, but it’s true. We are free to plan our way, to map out our future, but ultimately God establishes our steps.
Theologian Bruce Waltke put it this way:
‘A man may plan his road to the last detail, but he cannot implement his planning, unless it coincides with Yahweh's plan for Him’.
Man proposes, but God disposes.
Now, I think it’s easy to read a verse like this and walk away feeling like our plans mean nothing because, after all, ‘the Lord establishes our steps’. But that’s not the point.
The point here and the application of this verse should be that of surrender. It should also, I’d argue, be one of joy.
First, we should be joyful knowing that God establishes our steps! I mean, if we aren’t, we either have too low a view of God or too high a view of ourselves. His plans and ways are better than ours, and it should excite us knowing that He is directing our every step. And even more so, it’s a joy to know that our God is in the business of aligning our plans with His, and it’s awesome when they line up.
And with that, we should surrender the plans we make to God. Why? Because we aren’t the ultimate authority. We don’t have the final say. God does. It’s like a little kid with their parents. They can plan trips to the beach, the pool, the park, but at the end of the day, the parents have the car keys. They have the final say. That’s like us with God.
We are simply called to, as Proverbs 3:6 tells us, ‘acknowledge him in all our ways and he will make straight our paths’. Surrender and joyfully trust.
So what plans are you holding tightly right now?
Are you open to God redirecting them?
Let’s allow this verse to cause us to submit our plans to God, joyfully and humbly, knowing He will establish our steps.
