Wisdom from the Proverbs

(ESV) 15:33 The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. 

16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. … 3Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. … 9The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

What I get from this:

God is sovereign. Hallelujah! The Lord God almighty establishes my steps, even when I am all screwy. I want to know what to do this summer. I want to know how I can serve God and spread his glory and work for his Kingdom, so fearing God is instruction in wisdom. I need to fear God more. And it is no accident that 33b links humility with the fear of the Lord. True humility only comes from truly seeing who He is, which naturally leads to fear (and also to worship).

In 16:1 and 9, I want to say that it is just saying that man can make his plan, but the Lord has the final say since he has absolute sovereignty. In the NLT, 16:1 says, “We can gather our thoughts, but the LORD gives the right answer.” Although that isn’t incorrect, the more literal translations (ESV and NASB) use the word “belong”, which seems to say that the plans are supposed to be there. I want to work for God this summer, to bring him glory and work for his kingdom, but I always doubt my plans and ask God what he wants. But here it says that these plans belong. Now when I went to look at the original Hebrew, it appears that there may not actually be a verb there, so I don’t want to stress it too much, but if I make my plans, pray about them, willingly desire God to take my plans and have the final say, then I will be doing right. Most importantly verse 3, if I commit my work to the Lord, my plans will be established. So right there these same plans will be established by God if I just fully commit my work to the Lord. And I have no problem with that. Nothing could bring me greater joy that having my work be for the Lord!

I am using this blog to write out what God is showing me as I seek Him and His Word, and I quite nearly wasn’t going to post this because this is time that I want to spend with God only, but if I can glorify God and help others through what he is showing me, then let there be nothing that keeps me from sharing this.