Proverbs 16:1-3
“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the LORD and your plans will be established.”
What does committing our ways to the LORD look like?
I have been serving in so many different ways this month in Malawi.
- Feeding and playing with orphans (infants, toddlers and older children)
- Singing and dancing with widows
- Teaching bible stories to students
- Sharing my testimony in village churches
- Bringing the word of God to salon workers, children, widows, and far away villages
My team and I have grown to call our quaint little hosts’ house, “home” after a long day of ministry. We take 2 or 3 bucket (or if we’re lucky, real showers) showers a week, share 2 hot plates and a mini oven between 15 other people for cooking. We walk many miles a week. Our feet are always dirty. Our home has mosquitos, spiders and rats in it. This is our home. And we are pretty dang blessed by it.
(Last week my sleeping pad broke so it’s been a bit more uncomfortable than usual…we are trying to work out a replacement being sent to Africa – keep this in your prayers please!)
With all the things I have mentioned above you can probably guess Africa isn’t quite what I expected.
I have been put on the spot and asked to preach more times than I ever thought was possible. I have held the hands of so many children in Malawi, I could never keep track. I have had a few of my lowest days on the race here. I have also experienced some of the best days on the race here.
Each day I wake up and say to myself, “God, this day is not mine, but Yours. Please let my words and actions be glorifying to you.” Days pretty much never go as planned, but I am ok with this. I know that it’s because God’s got much better things for me.
I think this is why I am loving Africa so much.
The Word says to, “Commit your work to the LORD and your plans will be established.” So when I am daily giving my words and actions over to God, the Word says our plans are established in and through Him.
How good is that? Why wouldn’t I give the LORD my plans? My plans and ways are nothing compared to His.
I have had some ups and downs this month as I mentioned earlier, but even in the lows, my works have been given to God…so it’s easy to trust Him through the hard things as well as the easy things.
Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
I came from America with the mindset of planning is the best and only way to go. I like to be organized to a T. I like things to go my way and I really do not like changes in the plan. I hated last minute plans (maybe I still don’t really like those…) and in general if things made me uncomfortable in any way, I wasn’t a fan.
The race has shown me so much about the flaw in my plans. Usually when I think I’m right, I’m wrong and when I think God is wrong He is always right.
Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
The race is not the place that I expected to learn such lessons, in fact, I came on the World Race thinking I had already learned all of these things!
I thought in order to even be here I would have to have most of the answers…this was so not the case. I have grown and learned so much about myself and my God in the last 5 months.
Being able to sit in the knowledge of a God who has great plans for us, plans we ourselves could never guess or plan any better is such a sweet, sovereign thought.
The race is filled with possibilities and endless forks in the road, just as my future. It could be a scary thing if I sat and tried to work my way out.
Thankfully I can be at peace with the knowledge that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than my own.
Psalm 130:5 – “I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope.”
