Proverbs 16:3, Guidance – The Performance Side!
October 16, Proverbs 16:3
Eph. 1:1-14; Heb. 4:3 “For we which have believed do enter into rest.”
Guidance – The Performance Side!
God’s command joins hands with God’s promise. He keeps His promises! We began with personal surrender, Commit! This led to practical instructions, Commit thy works unto the Lord. Now, the promise pronounced: Thy thoughts shall be established, but “guard well your thoughts, for they are heard in heaven.”
1. There is a Harmoniousness. This speaks of the serenity of the saints. The justified have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). Early believers were greeted with, Peace from God. This then became the peace of God. Here is the promise of true harmony. Full of care – for nothing, and God’s peace – for everything (Phil. 4:7-9). Why are many Christians without this peace, this true harmony? Large churches have turned to humanistic psychology to counsel their troubled members. Why? Whatever happened to the Bible as the Book for troubled souls? The devil seeks to destroy this harmony by every means possible. Let him not turn us aside. Where the peace of God truly reigns, believers triumph over the trials and testings of life. Paul states that this peace shall keep or guard your hearts and minds. “Bring to God all the works you do, and you will not do any that you could not bring to Him” (Arnot). Most of the Epistles open with, Peace and close with Peace.
2. There is a Happiness. This reminds us of the blessed man of Psalm 1. The word happy is preferable to the word pleasure. There is the hedonistic pleasure of our sinful world (Lu. 8:14; Ti. 3:3), but Godly pleasure comes in doing the will of God. It recalls also the Beatitudes of Jesus (Mt. 5). “None will find happiness in this world or the next, who do not seek it from Christ in obedience to His Word” (Henry). Paul describes this as that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Rom. 12:2). It is good because it brings abiding peace; acceptable because it imparts genuine pleasure; perfect because it is the basis of all true prosperity. “Happy is that people, that is in such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord” (Ps. 144:15).
3. There is a Heavenliness. Thy thoughts shall be established. This shows that what God wills, He establishes with His blessing! He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of waters, that brings forth fruit in his season; … and whatsoever he does shall prosper. Whatever the world may say, the person who has God’s approval, possesses true wealth. He is God’s Blessed man. Paul says, Our conversation (lifestyle) is in heaven (Ph. 3:20)! As the hymn puts it, “Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.” Thus the believer’s thoughts are established. His every desire gratified. All his hopes are realised. All his work has an eternal reward and a heavenly goal. This is the end to which God guides all who Commit their works to Him, Heaven here, and Heaven hereafter!
Thought: Truly, the believer’s life is a guarded life and a guided life (1 Pet. 1:3-5).
Prayer: Lord, that my life will reflect this happy, heavenly harmony.