Father Knows Best

Father Knows Best
Nov 21, 2011
Proverbs 16:1 "To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue."

This verse, "To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue," is rather easily interpreted, but difficult to grasp in all its fullness. Some translations of this text differ in the last part of the phrase, reading "but to the Lord belongs the reply of the tongue." This verse simply means that a man can plan and dream all he wants but the Lord has the final say in it all. The Lord will always have the last word regarding our plans and it will be the correct one. What the Lord says becomes law; there will be no other back-talk, regardless of what He decides. This doesn't usually rest well with us as we always like a rebuttal, the opportunity to convince a higher authority that our plans are correct, that our way should be right. For some reason, even with the Heavenly Father, we always want an appeal process to argue our case and possibly change His mind, in an effort to get what we want.

The Heavenly Father is not a mind changer, He is not wishy-washy in His resolve on any matter. It is firmly decided ahead of time, because He already knows what we want, what we think, and what we will do in every situation. He knows the prayer requests that He is going to answer and He knows ahead of time the proper answer for the course of our plans. He knows His timing in answering our requests and He knows what is right for us in each and every scenario, regardless of what we planned. In short, The Father knows best.

This usually does not sit well with us. We think He has it all wrong sometimes, that He might not have it right this time around. Sure, He is probably right 99% of the time, but just this once He might have made a mistake, a mistake we are quick to point out in an effort to change the situation, to get our way, to make our plans the right ones. We wish, want, desire, and pray to get our way, but the last word on the subject comes from the Lord.

In order to wrestle with this verse correctly, to relax in knowing that The Father knows best even when our plans do not go as planned, we must re-read the last part of the verse. In this particular translation the words appear as, "proper answer." In understanding this verse, we need to realize that the Lord has our best interests at heart, that He is on our side even when our plans do not work out the way we want in life, what we think is appropriate. We have to trust in Him. That's the tricky part, trusting in Him. We have to trust that He is still in control, looking out for our best interests even when we get the opposite of what we planned.

You may have a complaint in your plans right now that you can do nothing about and might believe the Lord is in error for not changing the situation. I assure you, He knows best and is working it out the way He sees best. So, instead of complaining about your plans gone awry, you have an opportunity to thank Him for working it out with the "proper answer." If you cannot do this, then re-think how much you truly trust in the Lord. If you cannot thank Him for your plans going in a different direction, or for the things you want to change, then you don't trust Him as your Lord and Savior. You may have plans, but He has the final say in how they work out in your life! But don't worry, your Heavenly Father knows best.

Don't take my word for it; look it up: Ps 33:11, Pr 3:5, Pr 16:2-3, Pr 19:21, Rom 8:28