Proverbs 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.… There are some of you who, at some time or other, made a great effort to be religious, and to "prepare" your own heart to feel, to pray, to be holy, to be ready to die. You strove very hard. Did you succeed? or was it a complete failure? Lay it down as a foundation-principle, the great axiom of religion — you can never "prepare" your own heart. No prayer, no effort, no strength of character, no system of theology, no quantity of good works will do it. We must always be putting back our heart into our Maker's hands with such a prayer as this: "Lord take my heart — for I cannot give it; and keep it for Thyself — for I cannot keep it for Thee." 1. God will carry on "the preparation of the heart" by discipline. It is all drill from first to last. Life is education. As soon as God has special purposes of mercy to any soul, and takes it in hand, discipline begins. 2. There is great "preparation" in God's Word. We almost imperceptibly take the mind of the author. We get an intuition into the will of God. 3. God's great instrument — if that be an instrument which is Himself — is the Holy Ghost. 4. But there is another, and, if possible, still higher stage in the great preliminary — union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Real, sensible, living union. Now, it is a great and very pleasing thought to know that this fourfold "preparation of the heart" is always going on. Now all that you have to do is to let God work, and He will work. (J. Vaughan, M A.) Parallel Verses KJV: The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.WEB: The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh. |
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