Your Plans; God's Plans Proverbs

Today We Plan to Answer Three Questions:  If God is Sovereign, Why Make Plans?  How Do You Become a Person Who Makes Wise Plans?  What is the Father’s Plan for You?

 Often in the book of Proverbs we see what appear, on the surface at least, to be opposing ideas, but which require wisdom to understand how they fit together.  For example:  Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. (26:4-5)  Or:  Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. (10:4 NIV)  A poor man's field may produce abundant food, but injustice sweeps it away. (13:23 NIV)

 Today we will look at two more ideas found in the book of Proverbs, which, on the surface, seem to be opposing ideas:  Idea #1 : The success or lack of success that we experience in our life is the direct result of our planning and decisions.  Idea #2 : God is sovereign and no matter what we plan, he controls the outcome.

 So for example, on one hand the Proverbs tell us that:  The plans of the diligent [those who are strategic, thoughtful, reflective] lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty [those who are impulsive] comes only to poverty. (21:5)  Yet on the other hand we’re told that everything that happens in life, even seemingly random events, are a direct result of God’s sovereign choice:  The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. (16:33)

 Philosophically it’s hard for us to hold to both of these ideas at the same time.  People tend to believe that either:  Our choices matter and are significant and have consequences and that means our destiny is not fixed – history is open.  Everything is fixed so who cares how you live – it really doesn’t matter what you do.

 And yet the Bible teaches that we’re free to make whatever plans we desire, and, at the same time, the outcome is determined by God:  The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. (16:1)  In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. (16:9 NIV)

 So your plans are yours. Your choices are yours. You are responsible for them. If you do something stupid, wicked, selfish, or cruel – there’s going to be bad consequences and people are going to hold you accountable and they should. And God will hold you accountable and he should.  But what actually happens as a result of your plans, whether it’s words (16:1) or actual deeds (16:9), is absolutely controlled and totally fixed and set by God. Nothing happens that’s not according to his plan.  However difficult it may be to reconcile these two ideas, it is critical that we accept both of them because the Bible teaches us that both are true.

 And Proverbs teaches us that not only are little things a part of God’s plan, but bad things are a part of God’s plan as well:  The LORD works out everything for his own ends-- even the wicked for a day of disaster. (16:4 NIV)

 Those who do evil, freely choose to do evil and will be held accountable by God.  And yet, because God is both sovereign and holy, he uses the evil deeds of men to accomplish his good purposes.  We see numerous examples of this in scripture:  Joseph’s brothers intended to do evil to their brother Joseph when they sold him into slavery, but God used their evil decision to accomplish his good purpose in saving many people from starving to death (Gen 50:20)  Those who murdered Jesus did so out of evil intent, but God sovereignly ordained the murder of Jesus in order to save us from our sin! (Acts 4:27-28)

 Most of the time, when we see bad things happening in our lives or in the lives of those around us, we don’t know God’s sovereign purposes.  But we do know that:  Because God is sovereign everything that happens has a purpose.  Because God is Holy his purposes are always good.  Everything that happens is ultimately for God’s glory (Rom 11:36) and the good of his people (Rom 8:28).

 So, if God is sovereign, why make plans?  Because, as we have already seen:  Our plans and decisions are ours - we are responsible for them.  The plans and decisions we make will have a significant impact on our lives.  So if we want things to go well for us, we must learn to make wise plans and decisions.

 To become a person who makes wise plans, you must be committed to doing what is right (even if it seems to hurt you in the short run):  The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. (11:3)  The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful. (12:5 NIV)

 To become a person who makes wise plans, you must be keenly aware of your limitations as a fallible human being.  You can think you’re right and be dead wrong:  There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (14:12 and 16:25 NIV)  All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. (16:2 NIV)  Even short range plans have to be held with an “open hand”:  Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. (27:1)  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring… Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15)

 And if you truly recognize your limitations, whenever possible, you will ask (and take) the advice of those who are wise:  The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. (12:15).  Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. (15:22)  It is necessary to have a number of counselors to offset the weakness, ignorance, and limitations of each individual (Bruce Waltke on Proverbs 15:22)

 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. (16:3 NIV)  Tim Keller makes the following observations on this proverb:  You think you know what this proverb is saying – but you read it wrong.  The commentaries say this proverb is a complete reversal of the way people think. You would think it would say to commit your plans to the Lord and then your deeds will succeed.  In other words commit your plans to the Lord: “Oh Lord, bless my plans”, and then the execution will succeed.  It’s not saying that! It’s saying the opposite!

 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. (16:3 NIV)  Tim Keller makes the following observations on this proverb:  The word “commit” is a word that literally means, “to roll over onto, to put all of your weight on”.  And so what this is saying is, you must unconditionally, radically trust God for all the things that happen in your life and you slowly will become a person who makes wise plans, plans in accord with reality, with who God is, who you are, human nature…

 The Father’s plan for the vast majority of people who have ever lived is that they will spend eternity being justly punished for the sins they have committed.

 But for those who, by God’s grace, come to recognize that they deserve the wrath of God and trust in Jesus to deliver them from their sins – the Father has another plan:  For [the Father] chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will… In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will… And you… were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (Eph 1:4-5,11,13 NIV)