As a pastor in a college town, I'm constantly getting questions about guidance – how can I know the Lord's will for my life?  One of the most relevant verses to the issue of God's leading is Proverbs 16:3 – "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." 

I listened to a sermon the other day (by Tim Keller) and realized that I have been misreading this verse for years – maybe you have, too.

I thought it meant that if you pray over your plans and in some spiritual way "commit" them to the Lord then they'll be successful.  Everything should, in principle, turn out okay if we just pray about it.  That's not what this verse means.  Rather, Proverbs 16:3 means that we must commit our actions to the Lord first ("whatever you do") and then our plans will go right.

In other words, we must unconditionally and radically trust God in all things, with everything step we take, every deed we perform ("Commit to the Lord whatever you do"), and then and only then will God make it possible for us to see where He leads.

We want to walk by sight, so we desire to make plans and have them guaranteed by God as good before we ever take the first step in any direction.  We don't want to encounter pain or failure.  But God wills that we commit ourselves to him first through our actions – even when, especially when, we don't know how everything will turn out.   No guarantee that this is the "perfect" field of study for me.  No guarantee that this boy or girl is "the one."  No guarantee that this is the "right" job for me, or move to make, or house to buy, or time to have children, or time to retire.  We commit our actions to him by faith, and He will through his sovereignty make sure that our plans work out for our good and his glory. 

Therefore, it is costly to receive God's guidance – it costs us everything.  There is no holding back from God on the issue of guidance.  As Elizabeth Elliot put it, "The more we pay for advice the more we are likely to listen to it.  Advice from a friend which is free we may take or leave.  Advice from a consultant we have paid much for personally, we are more likely to accept, but it is still our choice; we can take it or leave it.  But the guidance of God is different.  First of all, we do not come to God asking for advice, but for God's will and that is not optional.  And God's fee is the highest one of all; it costs everything.  To ask for the guidance of God requires abandonment.  We no longer say, ‘If I trust you, you will give me such and such.'  Instead, we must say, ‘I trust you.  Give or withhold from me whatever you choose.'  As John Newton says, ‘What you will.  When you will.  How you will.'" 

How can do that?  How can we commit our deeds to the Lord unconditionally?  What gives us the strength?  Only Jesus, who in the garden of Gethsemane committed his work on the cross to the Lord, not at the risk of pain and, to all worldly appearances, failure, but in the face of it.  Jesus knew what was ahead, yet he committed himself to the Lord unconditionally for us, and now he promises that all things will work to the good of those who love God and who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  So let us sing in response, "Lead on O King Eternal, we follow not with fears; for gladness breaks like morning where'er Thy face appears.  Thy cross is lifted o'er us; We journey in its light: The crown awaits the conquest; Lead on, O God of might."