16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the Lord weighs the spirit.
3 Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.
4 The Lord has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.
5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord;
be assured, he will not go unpunished.
6 By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.
7 When a man’s ways please the Lord,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
8 Better is a little with righteousness
than great revenues with injustice.
9 The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.
10 An oracle is on the lips of a king;
his mouth does not sin in judgment.
11 A just balance and scales are the Lord‘s;
all the weights in the bag are his work.
12 It is an abomination to kings to do evil,
for the throne is established by righteousness.
13 Righteous lips are the delight of a king,
and he loves him who speaks what is right.
14 A king’s wrath is a messenger of death,
and a wise man will appease it.
15 In the light of a king’s face there is life,
and his favor is like the clouds that bring the spring rain.
16 How much better to get wisdom than gold!
To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
17 The highway of the upright turns aside from evil;
whoever guards his way preserves his life.
18 Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor
than to divide the spoil with the proud.
20 Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.
21 The wise of heart is called discerning,
and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness.
22 Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it,
but the instruction of fools is folly.
23 The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious
and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
24 Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
25 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
26 A worker’s appetite works for him;
his mouth urges him on.
27 A worthless man plots evil,
and his speech is like a scorching fire.
28 A dishonest man spreads strife,
and a whisperer separates close friends.
29 A man of violence entices his neighbor
and leads him in a way that is not good.
30 Whoever winks his eyes plans dishonest things;
he who purses his lips brings evil to pass.
31 Gray hair is a crown of glory;
it is gained in a righteous life.
32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
33 The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the Lord.
(ESV)
Acts 3
Acts 2
Acts 1
Luke 24
Luke 23
Luke 22
Luke 21
Luke 20
Luke 19
Luke 18
1 To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue
I love this proverb! And my favorite part is the opening! Men like myself plan things, and the reason why it says ‘the reply of the tounge’ is because the Lord is rebuking us!
Who are we to plan, to say what will happen and what won’t! We need to be completely leniant on the Lord and His almighty will!!!
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends— even the wicked for a day of disaster.
This weekend our guest speaker talked about God’s sovereignty over all…both the good and the bad. Here in Psalms we are reminded that we need to be seeking the Lord’s counsel/guidance in every area of our life including our plans. The Lord will work all out for His final purposes and glory. He has it all under control. We have nothing to worry about, we need to just trust Him with the future both in our own lives and for the world.
Wow! This chapter was jam packed full of great verses!
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
This verse reminds me of Colosians 3:17 to do everything in the name of the Lord. Then it says “and your plans will succeed”. If we are committing everything we do to the Lord, it says that we will succeed, which is pretty encouraging if you ask me!
32 Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.
I love this verse! How He is saying that it is better for you to be patient and have self-control, then to be a warrior who can conquer cities!! Wow! That is conviction for me to be more patient!!
5 The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Humility is a major theme of Proverbs, that means it must be a realy important thing to have. Jesus was hummble…that’s huge! God of the universe being humble? I don’t get it, but He was; so I should be too. Sometimes we might think we are acting humble by not boasting, but this verse says that we are to be humble in our hearts and not just how we act. So thinking that your more holy or better than someone else is sin, and it makes sense because we are all sinners and fall short.
18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
The warning in this verse about letting pride be your downfall is one that I often don’t heed. I get caught up in the day and only concerned about myself, and lose sight of humbling myself before God and submitting my actions to his plan, for “33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” He is the one who makes the decisions, not me and this is a good reminder to check my spirit. Is it haughty or humble?
25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
This verse is a warning against going down our own paths in life. often, straying from the path of God does not seem like a huge deal to us; it is just a small deviance that over time drags us further and further away from God. And the unsaved believe there is nothing wrong with the path that they walk. But the God who this chapter has made very clear controls everything and punishes the wicked will not let our evil acts go unaccounted for. We need to remember that god’s infinite wisdom is superior to our own knowledge and so we need to obey Him by walking in the path that He says is best for us, not the path that we think is best.
9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
We may plan things and expect them to happen, but it is God who is ultimately in control and is guiding our every step to where He wants and needs us to go. We need to rely on Him for our direction! =)
2 All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
Sometimes, we may be in sin even when we don’t think so. We might deceive and convince ourselves that what we are doing isn’t really all that bad. Or we might be doing the right thing but with a bad attitude or for our own personal gain. We need to ask God to reveal our motives so that we might glorify Him rather than be in sin without knowing it.
32 Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.
In this verse God is saying that a patient man is better than a warrior or someone who takes a city from someone else. He likes people who control their temper more than a warrior to. Well this verse applies to me because it just so happens that my High School happens to be the Saddleback Valley Christian Warriors. So in my life I am usually not a patient person, depending on what the subject of matter is. If it is like waiting in line for a roller coaster, then I will be very patient because I love roller coasters. If it is like waiting in line at the grocery store, then I will be very impatient. I am usually patient for things that I care about, and I am impatient for things I don’t care to do so much. I need to apply this in my life at school. Before I become a Warrior at my School, I need to learn to be more patient for everything, and I control my temper in front of the teachers. Only then, I will be a Warrior at my school.
Verses 18 and 19 are prety powerful… You hear it said all the time in movies and stuff that pride comes before the fall. We have to watch that we don’t become prideful because that is when trouble starts. We have to be living each day for God’s glory and his alone. The second we start getting prideful we lead ourselves into a path of sin. I need to pray that I don’t put myself and my pride before the Lord. He made us and he can take us away.
2 All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
This verse really stood out to me. So often, I know I do things with the certain motives and they will seem completely innocent to me. But, God knows the real motive and sees that my intent was totally wrong. This verse convicts me of saying I’m doing things for God an His glory when I’m really doing them for myself.
:)
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
Mmmmm….
This is what I needed to hear today….
Here is what I am planning right now…
-Beach Night tomorrow night
-Welcoming the Freshmen this weekend at True North
-In-N-Out Evangelism next week
-Missions trip the week after that
-And then pretty much the most awesome activity of all time(Lord willing) Revival 08!!!
As you can imagine this can feel a little overwhelming…but if I am committing all of these things to the Lord and trusting in Him then how can these plans fail! Praise the Lord we can trust Him for tangible things like this with a confidence that he will come through!
Please join me in praying for these events and entrusting them to the Lord!
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
The Lord’s will is always the better one. Whatever his will may be, we need to be okay with it. I need to rely and commit to the Lord more and more, instead of relying on myself at times. Because that never works, but God’s will, will succeed!
2 All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
This is a good reminder that God is always looking at our hearts. Doing the right thing doesn’t count if its for the wrong reason.
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
We have to be committed to the Lord’s commands in every situation and all the plans we have will be successful. This is such an encouraging verse! I got to trust in the Lord because He is my stregnth and the Lord can do anything and everything He does is perfect.
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends— even the wicked for a day of disaster.
Verse 3 and 4 stuck out to me that I need to have God first always. If I put myself first my plans won’t succeed. God decides what will happen
2 All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
It’s like what Mr. Cox went over in small groups last year. a good deed can be a bad one if you don’t have the right motives. Motives are what make a deed good or bad. If your not doing it for the Lord then it probably isn’t good. And never forget that God is always there because then you’ll lose it. I’ve experienced this many times. Always remember that God has everything under control and that without Him, you can’t do anything. It’s all His plans for you. It reminds me of v. 9. This chapter has a lot of good stuff. good stuff. :)
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
If your commiting to the Lord in what you do your plans will succeed. That means that if we are doing Gods will we will succeed. Look at Isreal, they succeeded when they followed GOd and got taken captive when they didn’t.
18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.
True that David. I think pride is a sin we all struggle with.
4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends— even the wicked for a day of disaster.
the Lord is omnicient and omnipotent, so He knows everything that is going to happen, everything. it is important that we listen to His commands and that we always obey Him. the Lord has our destinys under control, even the end of the world when Christ comes back.
9.) In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
I am going with what Jacob said on this one…
We may plan on or think that something is going to happen one way, but then it will happen another because God is in complete control over it.
Check out the blog Bobby!!! I will post it tomorrow morning to so others know to read it if they want to. Leave a comment Bobby, I look forward to the Love
9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
This verse is saying that we may have out own plans, but no matter what they are the Lord will make sure that you are going the way that he wants you to.
MMMMMMMM yet another great chapter from the book of Proverbs. I really liked the beginning of this chapter.
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
This verse just shows us again that we should be giving all of ourselves and all of the glory in whatever we do to the Lord. And through this we will succeed.
Also i liked verse 4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends— even the wicked for a day of disaster. The guest speaker talked about this this weekend. How even though things might be bad God is working them out for good. And through this like the speaker said this weekend ” things are not as bad as they seem”.
So i just really liked this chapter and it just reminded me that I need to give all that i have and all of my glory to the Lord. And that even though things might not be how i like them or how i want them God is working everything out to HIS ends not mine.
3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
this is verse is great cuz it reassures the fact that the LORD can never be stopped while working through you if you follow him.
9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
This is a reassuring proverb, it lets me know that day after day God will guide me and show me where to go. Even though I make my own decisions He is with me guiding me with the Holy Spirit and helping on my walk with Christ.
9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
There may be goals that we have planned for what we want to do. But we need to first think if it is what God wants. Because the Lord’s will will show you and guide you to where you should go. And it is his will which will succeed!