Mensa Otabil - Your Thoughts Will Be Established
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Welcome to a brand new week, and this week we go to the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs is a very practical book, and it's a book about practical theology. You know the children of Israel had the law of God, which taught them about God and how to worship Him in the temple and do sacrifices, and so on. But the Book of Proverbs tells us how to practically put our love for God and our faith in God into action. It speaks to us today because if we are Christians, and we love the law of the Lord and the word of God, and we pray, how do we practically live out our prayer life and our faith life in the world? That's what the Book of Proverbs is all about. We will look at Proverbs chapter 16 and we will be doing selected verses from Proverbs chapter 16.
So we start with verse number three: "Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established." This is practical advice or a practical word to us about how to put our faith into action. When we've prayed and we say we believe in God to do something for us, what do we do practically? How do we make it happen? The proverb says, "Commit your ways to the Lord." To commit your ways to the Lord simply means to give your ways to the Lord, to offer it to the Lord, almost like a sacrifice. That means that when you are doing something and embarking on a project or a mission, you start by committing it to the Lord. We do this in simple things, like praying over our food when we are eating, or praying over our journey when we're traveling. It doesn't mean you don't trust your driving, or you don't trust the roads; it simply is committing your ways to the Lord and practically, constantly reminding ourselves that we belong to God and that everything we do belongs to Him. We commit an endeavor to Him.
You know, many times people wait until they are in trouble, and when things are not going well, then we start committing things to the Lord. But we should commit to the Lord very early in all that we do. It doesn't mean that when we commit something to the Lord, nothing bad will happen. Some bad things may happen, and things may go wrong, even though we've committed to the Lord. But we have to trust that, because it is in God's hands, He will guide us out of the trouble we find ourselves in. So we commit our ways to the Lord, and then He tells us the outcome. When we commit our ways to the Lord, it says, "Your thoughts will be established." That means that it will come to pass. So when I'm going to do something and I commit it to the Lord, and I trust the Lord to guide it, lead it, and order my steps, the proverb tells me that I can rest assured that God will establish the thoughts I've committed to Him.
That is the assurance of the believer. There are many endeavors we undertake: we marry, we have children, we go to school, we take exams, and we go for interviews, and we commit all of them to the Lord. He says when we do, our thoughts will be established. It doesn't mean it will perfectly go the way you expect, but God will always establish your thoughts if you commit to Him. That means that you trust Him, even when you hear "no," or you come against a roadblock. Trust that God is in charge of your situation, that He is in control, and that He will guide it.
So this week, you may hear someone saying, "Oh, the plans you submitted have been disapproved," or "Your application did not go through." If you committed it to the Lord, trust Him, because in the end, He will establish your thoughts. That is the assurance of the Christian. Practically, as we trust God, we trust Him through thick and thin, through the mountain and the valley.
Let us pray. Sit with me: Heavenly Father, my plans are in Your hands. Establish my plans and the work of my hands in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.
Well, I'll catch you again tomorrow, and Pastor Mensa Otabil, shalom, peace, and life to you.