Proverbs 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course,
but the Lord determines his steps.

Proverbs has a lot to say about the sovereignty of God. In this chapter alone, verses 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9 touch on it. However, it’s this verse that resonates most with me at the moment. Perhaps that’s because the Japanese expression in the first half is so expressive of my own experience. The NIV says “plans,” but the Japanese says “mulls over.” A literal translation would be, “wanders around in thought.” I couldn’t begin to calculate, even, how many times I’ve done that! We spend great amounts of time going over things again and again in our minds. I even made a tongue twister out of it: “I think I thought this thing through thoroughly.” (I teach pronunciation to speach therapists, and use a lot of tongue twisters.) However, much of that is entirely futile, because we don’t keep God in focus as we consider things. The second half of the verse is also a little more pointed in Japanese: “The Lord makes his walk sure.” In other words, we can create all sorts of pipe dreams, but God is the one who brings thing to pass. This also applies in the negative. “He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.” (Job 5:12) “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.” (Psalm 33:10) The wisest course, always, is to seek God for what He wants to do, and for the part He wants you to have in that, and then apply yourself fully in obedience to Him.

I have lost countless hours of sleep running over things in my mind, when what I needed to do was release things to God and trust Him with them. God allows circumstances that provoke me to that precisely to teach me to let Him be God. It’s not that I have no part in what I do; I am totally accountable to God for every moment of my life. It’s also not that I’m never to plan things out. I have a tendency in that direction, and it doesn’t end well! I am to plan and prepare, but always in submission and obedience to God. If God said to do it, that settles it. My responsibility is to seek Him for how to do it, and not to hold anything back in my obedience to Him. God has given me a vision of Omura again being the foremost Christian city in Japan, as it was over 450 years ago. I couldn’t begin to bring that about in my own strength and wisdom, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to do with its coming about. The past 15 months have been intensive training in this area, and the score card isn’t complete as to how I’ve done. I need to keep remembering that God’s plans for me are good, (Jeremiah 29:11) and that He’s the one who brings things to pass, as this verse says.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all You have done already this week to heal and reassure us after the battering we have endured. I continue to pray that Your will would be accomplished on Your schedule and that we would be fully obedient in our participation, for the salvation of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!