This Day in History: 0000-01-29

January 29 – Proverbs 16: 1-3 

We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer. 

People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. 

Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. 

Are we including God in our plans? Are we committing everything we do to Him? Are we seeking Him first, or just moving forward on our own? If we want to succeed, and I’m going to go ahead and assume we all do, then it is vital we answer yes to every one of those questions. 

I must admit, this is hard for me. I’m a do-er. I don’t really like to sit around and make plans, and I certainly don’t like to ask for permission. I want to just plow through and get ‘er done. If success were a result of sheer force of will, as the world likes to make us believe, then I would be a very successful person! 

Fortunately, that’s not the way it works. I say fortunately because I can’t even begin to count the times I’ve had some grand idea of what should be that turned out to be pure idiocy. If steamrolling my way to success had been my strategy, things would have turned really ugly really fast. 

Thank God, I serve a Master who examines my heart and understands my motives; not to mention a Lord who’s scope of knowledge includes all things through all time! His wisdom and understanding far outweigh my own, and in living a life in which I seek Him regularly I have been spared many disasters thanks to His perfect sovereignty. Of course, I’ve also failed to seek Him enough times to know it’s never the path I want to take again!  

So no matter what we’ve done before today, let’s choose from here on out to seek Him daily. Let’s never again make our own plans, but instead pursue the right answers through prayer and petition to the One who holds them. Let’s ask Him to examine our motives and be prepared to accept the truth of what He finds there. Let’s commit our actions wholly to Him and in so doing, may we find true success! Kingdom-impacting, eternity-shaping success that comes from Him!