Today’s Gospel

A man's heart devises his way: but the LORD directs his steps. - Proverbs 16:9

Reflection

Everyone with lots of experience has first-hand knowledge of this verse. Even unbelievers find something to say about this after they have experienced a lot. As we always say, “Farming depends on man, harvesting depends on Heaven.” “Man proposes, God disposes.” Success or failure is not up to man but depends on the ordination of God. However, we always plan and prepare for our future, hoping to find a good job, have a happy marriage, or other. We can make a thousand plans or ten thousand plans, but after experiencing a lot, we realize that we sometimes cannot find a job we love, but something we don’t want to do becomes our job; and that the object of our affections is not necessarily the person with whom we will share our life, while someone we never expect may become our other half. Step by step, we deeply understand that all is ruled over and guided by God and that we are not in control of our own fate. This verse of wisdom tells us that we should let go of our plans and obey God’s sovereignty and arrangements. Only thus can we receive God’s blessings. We should let go of all our plans and intents, entrust everything to God’s hands, and accept and submit to His orchestration and arrangements, without personal requirements, desires, and ambitions. Regardless of whether what happens to us is good or bad in people’s eyes, or whether it conforms to human notions or not, we should pray to and rely on God, seek God’s will, and unconditionally accept and submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements. If we do so, then we will gain the guidance and leadership of God, be peaceful and clear in our hearts, and have a way of practice. Just as when the enslaved Israelites in Egypt looked to God earnestly, God inspired Moses to lead them out of Egypt and liberated them from the Pharaoh’s slavery. When Job was tempted by Satan, he firmly believed in God and praised God during the trials and he had no plans for himself, and in the end, God appeared and spoke to him.

God says, “From the moment you come crying into this world, you begin to fulfill your duty. For God’s plan and for His ordination, you perform your role and start your life’s journey. Whatever your background, and whatever the journey ahead of you, no one can escape the orchestrations and arrangements of the Heaven, and no one is in control of their own destiny, for only He who rules over all things is capable of such work. Since the day man came into existence, God has ever worked thus, managing the universe, directing the rules of change for all things and the trajectory of their movement. Like all things, man is quietly and unknowingly nourished by the sweetness and rain and dew from God; like all things, man unknowingly lives beneath the orchestration of God’s hand. Man’s heart and spirit are held in the hand of God, everything of his life is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, whether living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear in accordance with God’s thoughts. Such is the way in which God presides over all things.”