Does God Promise Success

Happy Sunday. There are some Bible verses that are often misunderstood and misqued, misused. Today's verse could easily be in that category. Let's take a look at Proverbs 16:3.

Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. A modern translation says it this way. Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.

Do you see how these words could be twisted? Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed. People likely love the last four words of Proverbs 16:3. Your plans will succeed.

Entrepreneurs might read this verse and think, "I'll open a restaurant and it'll make big money." Or, "I'll open a sporting goods store or fill in the bank blank and and I'll just rake in the cash." An investor may read your plans will succeed and think that they're promised by God to be a millionaire overnight. A boy may have a crush on a girl and think that if he wants her bad enough that God will make it so your plans will succeed.

Now, it's important to look at the first part of Proverbs 16:3. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed. I believe many people miss the first part.

Commit your work to the Lord. This is more than praying at the grand opening. This is seeking God first before anything else. Seeking his guidance, his direction.

Many times people want the blessing without the commitment. The word commit in this verse takes precedence. Translated from the Hebrew, it literally means to roll. To roll it to God.

It it paints a picture of shifting the weight and burdens of your plans entirely onto God. Much like handing a heavy object to someone stronger. It's encouraging us to surrender our control, our plans, and our labor to God. In the New Testament, the book of James is clear about this.

This is from James chapter 4. Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow, we'll go to such and such a town, spend a year there, doing business, and making money. Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring." What is your life?

For you're a mess that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil. The problem is so often people make big decisions without consulting God.

I'm now at a point in my life that I wouldn't even put the car in drive until I've prayed. The best decisions that I've ever made in my life are result of rolling the planning process to Almighty God. And sadly, I think this world is in such a sad state because people are not seeking God in all their plans. As I began, I stated that there are some Bible verses that are often misunderstood, misused, misqued.

I saw a mistransation of this verse that is so far from the truth. online. I found this translation of Proverbs 16:3. Ask the Lord to bless your plans and you will be successful in carrying them out.

Ask the Lord to bless your plans and you will be successful in carrying them out. Do you see what's wrong here? This makes God a magic business partner in the sky. They'll go along with anything you say and you will be successful.

That's not what is said in Proverbs 16:3. Yet it's a very popular thinking. People believe this lie. To be successful in this life, you must rely on God's counsel and direction over your own life.

When I gradu graduated high school 49 years ago, I wanted to be a lawyer. My motivation was money. I didn't want to help people. Didn't care about that.

I wanted money. When I got to college at Mississippi State, I was called to preach through various situations. Had I not listened to God, had I gone my own way, I guess today I'd be a miserable lawyer. Now, please don't misunderstand.

If God had called me to be a lawyer and I decided I wanted to be a preacher, and note the emphasis I wanted to be a preacher, not God called me to preach. If id done that, I'd be a miserable preacher today. The point is to listen. Listen to God's direction.

Make his plans your plans. Seek first the kingdom of God. Pray with me. Lord, some of us might be watching this, listening to these words, and thinking, you know, all my big plans have been made.

I've done all the stuff I'm going to do in this life that really matter. And that's not the truth. It matters what we do every day. So help us in the big decisions, the little decisions, all decisions to include you.

Lord, I hope this reaches young people that have a life stretched out before them and they choose to put your plans into action over theirs. wonderful things will happen. Father be with us in Jesus name. Amen.

God bless. Thanks for being with me today.