#DailyDevotion Make Sure Your Plans Are The LORD’s Plans
Psalm 37 5Commit your ways to the LORD, trust Him, and He will act (for you). 6He will make your righteousness shine like a light and your just cause like sunshine at noon.
Some people may take verse five and think committing your ways to the LORD is dedicating your plans to Him and will have the LORD rubber stamp what you are planning to do. It is the exact opposite. No, committing your ways to the LORD means aligning your ways with His ways. It is conforming your will to His will. It is leaving the guidance of your life and everything in it up to Him. Do this and He will act for you.
Now to be able to do such a thing, once must regularly be in the LORD’s word so you may know what His revealed will is for you. You need to learn to read His word in context and not just excise snippets you like apart from their meaning where you are reading it from. If you are uncertain of something, ask your fellow Christians and your pastor what a passage means.
Committing your ways to the LORD is what Jesus says, “Love your life and lose it or hate your life and gain eternal life,” or “Pick up your cross and follow me.” In this light then, when we commit our ways to the LORD and trust Him, He will make our “righteousness shine like a light and our just cause like sunshine at noon.” For if your ways are His ways and you are trusting Him, He credits you with His righteousness and He will begin to conform your life to His life. As St. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”
7Stand still and look to the LORD for help. Don’t get upset when somebody is successful and accomplishes the evil he plans.
This is probably one of the hardest things of all, standing still. This is especially true for type A personalities, who always think you must do something. But also for others, it is difficult, because we don’t believe God is going to act. If the LORD needs you to do something, He will let you know. Look instead unto the LORD for help. David says in Psalm Psa 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (ESV) One of my favorite examples of waiting on the LORD is when Jerusalem is surrounded by a couple of kings with their armies who were superior. The LORD told them to open the city gates go outside and play, sing, and dance. The LORD had the two armies fight against each other. We can remember from Psalm 27, “14Wait for the LORD to help you. Be strong and full of courage. Yes, wait for the LORD.”
What we should not do is “get upset when somebody is successful and accomplishes the evil he plans.” This goes back to verse one and not getting jealous of those who are successful with their evil plans. If we get jealous of them, we may join them in their evil ways to get what we want. To do this is to think in the short game as if this short life is all there is to our existence. We forget there is an eternity where the LORD rewards and punishes us. Those who live their lives not trusting the LORD, while successful in completing their evil plans will suffer for all eternity. Those who wait on the LORD, trust our LORD Jesus Christ, and commit all our ways to Him, will receive from Him eternal rewards which last for all eternity. But even in our lifetime we should still stand and let God be God. Wait on God, be still, be still in your heart and mind and look to the LORD for help.
Heavenly Father, many times it is so difficult to be still and wait on you to act. Grant us Your patient endurance that we may trust in You for help and not act sinfully in trying to solve our problems. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.