Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Success”
Our Bible verse for today: “Commit you actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 (NLT)
Our thought for today: “Real success begins with submission to God.
To compliment and enhance the study we have just completed on “Healthy Living”, we will spend the rest of the month of February thinking about success in general.
In Proverbs 16:3 the writer seems to make a promise that if we make plans, and then commit those plans to the Lord, we are guaranteed of succeeding in those plans. But that would be a misreading of the text because it puts you ahead of God. It puts your plans first and then asks God to coming along and bless what you have already decided to do.
What the writer actually means is that our plans and actions are to grow out of our complete submission to God. We must begin with a commitment to know His will and be obedient to it. The Amplified Bible is helpful. The Amplified Bible includes all the English words needed to capture the full meaning and intent of the original Hebrew. In that expanded translation this verse reads:
“Roll your works upon the Lord (commit and trust them wholly to Him: He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and) so shall your plans be established and succeed.”
So it’s a matter of the heart. Your heart has to be right first. Your desire must be to know and obey the will of God and from that, come your plans and actions. When that is the case, as the Proverb says, “…your plans will succeed.”
I encourage you not to make any plans, do not set any goals or take any actions in life, until you have first committed yourself wholly and fully to the will of God. Let all your plans, goals, aspirations, and dreams start there.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 