Proverbs 16:1, "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD."
Over the years, this proverb has remained one of my favorites. This proverb often finds its way into my prayers as it is a bold reminder of how much we need God's help. In it, Solomon credits God for any positive preparations in the heart of man as well as for any good answers of the tongue. While he doesn't define the preparations of the heart as positive or the answer of the tongue as good, it would be irrational to conclude otherwise given the totality of Solomon's writings. He is not suggesting that God prepares every heart and gives every tongue its answers otherwise God would be credited with putting evil in the hearts and tongues of evil people. Good preparations of the heart and good answers of the tongue come from without, not from within. They come from God, not from us.
On a few occasions in Scripture, we're told indirectly through historical story to prepare our hearts for good and for God. In 1 Samuel 7, the Israelites had lost a battle with the Philistines and afterwards were confronted with the reason for their military loss, which was their spiritual decline. Samuel told them, "If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD." Solomon's son, Rehoboam failed in life "because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD" (2 Chron. 12:14). On the contrary, the Scriptures tell us that Ezra "prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments" (Ezra 7:10). We clearly have a say in and a responsibility to prepare our hearts for good and for God. It is our freewill decision to prepare our hearts or not for God's presence, word and direction.
Our hearts don't naturally welcome God. Our hearts don't instinctively follow good and God. We need to intentionally and seriously prepare our hearts for the work of God in them. We need to unlock the door of our hearts and prepare to host the God of Heaven. It is both our opportunity and responsibility to prepare our hearts BUT this proverb is telling us Who does the real preparations. True long-lasting and life-altering preparations in the heart of man is done by God. Because we are so deeply limited and because we are so severely skewed, we need OUTSIDE HELP to prepare our hearts for God's wonderful work in them. This is the revelation of this proverb and the position of Scripture. Psalm 10:17, "LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart." Before David died, he prayed these words regarding the building of the Temple, "O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee" (1 Chron. 29:18). We can and must prepare our hearts for God but we also must realize that only God can really prepare our hearts for what He has for us.
The preparations of the heart in man, as Solomon refers to them, are the Divine preparations for the Divine work God does in any heart whose soul has granted Him total access. When we prepare our heart for God, we are essentially preparing it for God to do both the preparing and the repairing. When we recognize that we need God to work in our heart, we prepare it for that work. This is akin to signing a waiver, not eating or taking certain medications 12 hours before going in for a heart procedure. Those are the preparations a patient does to allow a cardiac surgeon to perform some work on a heart. By making those preparations, the cardiac surgeon can then make his preparations in the heart that allow for the necessary work to make that heart healthy. When we have a heart murmur, irregular heartbeat or artery blockage, there is only so much we can do on our own. There is only so much exercise and diet can do. When we have heart problems, deficiencies or inefficiencies, we need OUTSIDE HELP. Our preparations are only necessary in that they enable and empower the real preparations by the specialist. So too in the spiritual realm, our preparations to seek God are only necessary in that those human preparations enable and empower the Divine preparations by the Divine Cardiac Specialist.
Solomon wanted his son just as our Heavenly Father wants His children to know that real preparations and true transformations of the heart are only done by God. There is only so much we can do. There is only so much we can change. The spiritual irregular heartbeats that we have by nature can't be fixed by spiritual exercise and spiritual diet - they have to be remedied by OUTSIDE HELP; by Divine help. The spiritual holes that exist in our spiritual hearts are there by spiritual nature and can only be filled by OUTSIDE HELP; by Divine help. Our spiritual hearts beat, pump and flow by our flawed human nature. They need the hand of God to reach in and change, reprogram and fix them. Solomon didn't want his son or his readers to see real change in the heart of man as the capability of man. We can't fix our spiritual hearts on our own any more than we can fix our physical hearts on our own. We need to grant OUTSIDE HELP access to our hearts. We need to surrender to the spiritual anesthesia and spiritual surgery of Heaven and let its Great Cardiologist prepare our hearts for a spiritually rich future.
The same is true for the answer of the tongue. We have a duty to address our tongues, as emphasized over and over throughout the Bible and especially throughout the Book of Proverbs. The Apostle Peter very specifically addressed this duty of the answer of the tongue when he wrote in 1 Peter 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man." Just as with the heart, we have a responsibility to manage our tongues and to prepare them for good. But also, just as with the heart, there is only so much we can do to make them good. Nearly the same thing is said of our tongues as is said of our hearts. The prophet Jeremiah calls our hearts "deceitful above all things" and "desperately wicked" in chapter 17 of his book. He then asks the question, "Who can know it?" James calls our tongues a "fire, a world of iniquity" and "an unruly evil, full of deadly poison" in chapter 3 of his book. He concludes "the tongue can no man tame." If no man can know the heart, how can any man fix his heart? If no man can tame the tongue, how can any man fix his tongue? Both crucial spiritual muscles require OUTSIDE HELP.
Any serious long-lasting change in our hearts must come from the Lord AND any sustainably sound answer of the tongue must also come from the Lord. There is only so much we can do when it comes to our spiritual heartbeat and there is only so much we can do when it comes to our spiritual words. We can study the Bible day and night but because the tongue is an unruly evil, we need God to give us the right answers to people's questions. We can learn every Bible story and every Bible doctrine but we still need God to give us the right answers at the right time. We can determine to say the right thing at the right time but our tongues need more than will power or determination - they need the hand of God on them. Solomon learned this truth when he had to answer two distraught mothers. When he answered their heart-wrenching arguments by the wisdom of God, he realized that it came from the Lord and from that moment on, all answers needed to come from the Lord. He would continue to learn and study to answer tough cases but his dependence wouldn't be on his preparation, effort or intellectual capacity - it would be on Heaven's Cardiac and Oral Specialist.
Today, our humanistic society would have us seek solutions to our behavioral struggles from within. For some time now, we have been told to believe in ourselves and to empower the inner self as the solution to our personal struggles. We have been led to believe that will power is the real power of our lives. Solomon didn't subscribe to any of these vain and temporary solutions. He believed that surrendering to and depending on the Lord is the only way to find true changes in our behavior and speech. He learned by experience, revelation and wisdom that real power is not found from within below but from without above. He knew human nature and the human being. He knew that there is only so much we can do about ourselves - we need OUTSIDE HELP; Divine OUTSIDE HELP. Fortunately for us, we have a God Who is beyond thrilled to provide that OUTSIDE HELP. We just need to sign the waiver and get on the operating table - He'll do the rest!
On a few occasions in Scripture, we're told indirectly through historical story to prepare our hearts for good and for God. In 1 Samuel 7, the Israelites had lost a battle with the Philistines and afterwards were confronted with the reason for their military loss, which was their spiritual decline. Samuel told them, "If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD." Solomon's son, Rehoboam failed in life "because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD" (2 Chron. 12:14). On the contrary, the Scriptures tell us that Ezra "prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments" (Ezra 7:10). We clearly have a say in and a responsibility to prepare our hearts for good and for God. It is our freewill decision to prepare our hearts or not for God's presence, word and direction.
Our hearts don't naturally welcome God. Our hearts don't instinctively follow good and God. We need to intentionally and seriously prepare our hearts for the work of God in them. We need to unlock the door of our hearts and prepare to host the God of Heaven. It is both our opportunity and responsibility to prepare our hearts BUT this proverb is telling us Who does the real preparations. True long-lasting and life-altering preparations in the heart of man is done by God. Because we are so deeply limited and because we are so severely skewed, we need OUTSIDE HELP to prepare our hearts for God's wonderful work in them. This is the revelation of this proverb and the position of Scripture. Psalm 10:17, "LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart." Before David died, he prayed these words regarding the building of the Temple, "O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee" (1 Chron. 29:18). We can and must prepare our hearts for God but we also must realize that only God can really prepare our hearts for what He has for us.
The preparations of the heart in man, as Solomon refers to them, are the Divine preparations for the Divine work God does in any heart whose soul has granted Him total access. When we prepare our heart for God, we are essentially preparing it for God to do both the preparing and the repairing. When we recognize that we need God to work in our heart, we prepare it for that work. This is akin to signing a waiver, not eating or taking certain medications 12 hours before going in for a heart procedure. Those are the preparations a patient does to allow a cardiac surgeon to perform some work on a heart. By making those preparations, the cardiac surgeon can then make his preparations in the heart that allow for the necessary work to make that heart healthy. When we have a heart murmur, irregular heartbeat or artery blockage, there is only so much we can do on our own. There is only so much exercise and diet can do. When we have heart problems, deficiencies or inefficiencies, we need OUTSIDE HELP. Our preparations are only necessary in that they enable and empower the real preparations by the specialist. So too in the spiritual realm, our preparations to seek God are only necessary in that those human preparations enable and empower the Divine preparations by the Divine Cardiac Specialist.
Solomon wanted his son just as our Heavenly Father wants His children to know that real preparations and true transformations of the heart are only done by God. There is only so much we can do. There is only so much we can change. The spiritual irregular heartbeats that we have by nature can't be fixed by spiritual exercise and spiritual diet - they have to be remedied by OUTSIDE HELP; by Divine help. The spiritual holes that exist in our spiritual hearts are there by spiritual nature and can only be filled by OUTSIDE HELP; by Divine help. Our spiritual hearts beat, pump and flow by our flawed human nature. They need the hand of God to reach in and change, reprogram and fix them. Solomon didn't want his son or his readers to see real change in the heart of man as the capability of man. We can't fix our spiritual hearts on our own any more than we can fix our physical hearts on our own. We need to grant OUTSIDE HELP access to our hearts. We need to surrender to the spiritual anesthesia and spiritual surgery of Heaven and let its Great Cardiologist prepare our hearts for a spiritually rich future.
The same is true for the answer of the tongue. We have a duty to address our tongues, as emphasized over and over throughout the Bible and especially throughout the Book of Proverbs. The Apostle Peter very specifically addressed this duty of the answer of the tongue when he wrote in 1 Peter 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man." Just as with the heart, we have a responsibility to manage our tongues and to prepare them for good. But also, just as with the heart, there is only so much we can do to make them good. Nearly the same thing is said of our tongues as is said of our hearts. The prophet Jeremiah calls our hearts "deceitful above all things" and "desperately wicked" in chapter 17 of his book. He then asks the question, "Who can know it?" James calls our tongues a "fire, a world of iniquity" and "an unruly evil, full of deadly poison" in chapter 3 of his book. He concludes "the tongue can no man tame." If no man can know the heart, how can any man fix his heart? If no man can tame the tongue, how can any man fix his tongue? Both crucial spiritual muscles require OUTSIDE HELP.
Any serious long-lasting change in our hearts must come from the Lord AND any sustainably sound answer of the tongue must also come from the Lord. There is only so much we can do when it comes to our spiritual heartbeat and there is only so much we can do when it comes to our spiritual words. We can study the Bible day and night but because the tongue is an unruly evil, we need God to give us the right answers to people's questions. We can learn every Bible story and every Bible doctrine but we still need God to give us the right answers at the right time. We can determine to say the right thing at the right time but our tongues need more than will power or determination - they need the hand of God on them. Solomon learned this truth when he had to answer two distraught mothers. When he answered their heart-wrenching arguments by the wisdom of God, he realized that it came from the Lord and from that moment on, all answers needed to come from the Lord. He would continue to learn and study to answer tough cases but his dependence wouldn't be on his preparation, effort or intellectual capacity - it would be on Heaven's Cardiac and Oral Specialist.
Today, our humanistic society would have us seek solutions to our behavioral struggles from within. For some time now, we have been told to believe in ourselves and to empower the inner self as the solution to our personal struggles. We have been led to believe that will power is the real power of our lives. Solomon didn't subscribe to any of these vain and temporary solutions. He believed that surrendering to and depending on the Lord is the only way to find true changes in our behavior and speech. He learned by experience, revelation and wisdom that real power is not found from within below but from without above. He knew human nature and the human being. He knew that there is only so much we can do about ourselves - we need OUTSIDE HELP; Divine OUTSIDE HELP. Fortunately for us, we have a God Who is beyond thrilled to provide that OUTSIDE HELP. We just need to sign the waiver and get on the operating table - He'll do the rest!
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