Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed.



Prov 16:3
Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed.
Read also 1Pet 5:6-7
 
Out of baseball for good?
 
Traded from the Montrel Expos to an AA team in Nashville, pitcher Tim Burke, in his worst starting inning, allowed Chattanooga to score four runs.  His wife recalls:
    "That evening Tim said, 'After tonight, there's a strong chance I'll be released.  I could be out of baseball for good.'
    "'Tim', I told him, 'maybe we need to turn your career over to the Lord.'
    "Tim responded without hesitiation, 'That's a good idea.'
    "On our knees by our kitchen table, Tim prayed: 'Lord, I never even thought about you caring about this stuff.  If I'm holding on to baseball too much, help me to let it go; but if you want me to keep going, I'll fight to make it.  You know best.'
    "Then I said, 'Lord, if you'll give Tim the strength and opportunity, he'll give it his all; but if it's not your will for us to stay in baseball, please show us what you have next for our lives.'
    "When we finished, we still had no idea what lay ahead, but we had a new sense of peace" - and Tim didn't lose another game all season.  Christine Burke in Major League Dad.
 
 
It sounds so simple: "commit your work to God" then you "will succeed."  But this requires more from us than a simple nod of the heart towards God.  It's more than asking him to approve and bless our efforts before we go our merry ways.
 
The power behind this verse is in the word "commit".  When one commits to the Lord, he turns over the project and lets go completely.  Then, of course, the plans succeed because God is in control of both the work and the results.
 
For many of us, it's far from easy to turn things over to God.  But success depends on your willingness to humble yourself "under the mighty power of God" (1Pet 5:6).  Then, "in his good time, he will honour you."  In other words, take your hands off the wheel, peacefully sit back, and leave the driving to the one who knows the road ahead.
 
 
The Moravians had a wonderful symbol.  It was a bull standing between an alter and a plough, below were the words "Ready for either".