Beautiful and balanced

A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9 (NKJV)

The Bible reveals a beautiful balance between two realities: the free will of man and the sovereignty of God…a balance that is perfectly fitted and framed for us in the proverb above.

Let’s look at man’s side of the equation first. We’re told, “A man’s heart plans his way.” The word here for plan is a very interesting one. It literally means to weave, fabricate, or invent.

There’s a freedom within all human beings to come up with thoughts and ideas on their own, particularly when it comes to the course their life takes. We aren’t robots. If we were, the scriptures wouldn’t use the word plan here. We’re free moral agents, capable of producing original thoughts and ideas.

Yet while we’ve been created with this capacity, there’s a “But the LORD” that has to be factored in as well. God doesn’t just let us weave or fabricate our own ideas and agendas and leave it at that. He didn’t wind us up when He created us and allow us to go through our existence on our own. Yes, man plans his way, “but the LORD directs his steps.”

This word for directs in the Hebrew can be rendered to establish or to make firm. Now God’s sovereignty is clearly seen. It’s under the Lord’s authoritative superintendence that our thoughts and ideas become established, become firm, and become realities. Apart from His active participation in this regard, our plans would never come to pass. We can’t go through life and point to our accomplishments saying, “Look what I did!” because God is the One who ultimately directs and establishes our steps.

Again, there’s a beautiful balance here. We’re free enough to be our own person, and yet God is sovereign enough to be God. And it’s as we’re us and He’s Him that a relationship is created and cultivated—a relationship that’s beautiful and balanced.