Mensa Otabil - The Lord Directs Our Steps (10/23/2025)
The Book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 16, and we're learning practical ways to live out our Christian life. That's one of the things I love about the Book of Proverbs, because it teaches you practical steps to make God an integral part of your choices, your actions, and your life here on Earth.
So, Proverbs chapter 16, verse 9: "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." A man's heart plans his way; the word "heart" is used in this verse in a broad sense to mean your will, your thoughts, and your emotions. We plan with our own will; of course, that's how life is supposed to be. You don't sit down doing nothing; you plan, "I'm going to do this," and "I'm going to do that." I want to become this, and I want to become that, and you have an emotional attachment to something.
All of us have a passion for something we want to do in life and achieve in life. You want to prosper; you want to do well; you want your children to do well; you want your grandchildren to do well. These are the thoughts of our hearts; these are the plans of our hearts. It's always important to have something in mind. You know, there are people who never plan and just live life as it comes, and every day they just breeze through life. That's not really the biblical way of living. The biblical way of living includes planning, being intentional, and being very concerned about the choices you make and the actions you take, and all of that is part of how we live our Christian lives. But that's not all because a plan has to be executed; a plan has to be worked out; a plan has to be implemented. It is at the implementation stage that you can tell whether your plans are good or not.
So, the passage here is dividing two things: the planning stage and the execution stage. It says that once you have planned your life from your own heart, you have to trust God for the steps you must take because the steps you must take are so important to the outcome of your life. Planning is unseen; the steps are what bring the unseen into reality. It says, "But the Lord directs his steps." So, what does that practically mean? That means after I've planned my own way in my heart, after I have worked out my own plans and I'm emotional about them, I just come back to God and say, "Lord, order my steps."
So, practically it means that God can make you take steps that are different from the plans you've made in your heart. In the planning stage, you wanted to go left, but at the execution stage, as you pray, " Lord, order my steps," He's going to take you right. And how does He take you right? He does it in many ways. Many times, you expect a God of thunder from heaven to speak to us; it doesn't happen that way often. It simply means sometimes God is going to open a new opportunity for you and a new door will open. That is not really where you thought you would be, but you just know in your heart you have peace about it; you have a sense of rest, and you know this direction is the opportunity God has given to you.
So, you walk in that path. What has happened? You planned to go left, but God has opened a path for you to the right. We have to always be sensitive to God and not just follow the inclination of our hearts and take God out of the picture. We plan, but He executes differently. Sometimes you execute according to where you want to go. You want to go left; He goes left with you. But sometimes you want to go left, and He's going to go right with you. You have to have the discernment to know that this opportunity is from God, that this person God has brought into your life is from God, and is taking you in a direction a little different from where you thought you were going to go with this plan. For us Christians, we trust God to order our steps.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, my future is in Your hands. Let my plans reflect Your purpose for my life. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, I'll catch you again tomorrow. I'm Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.