Introduction
Are you drifting through your days reacting to whatever is loudest and latest, or are you intentionally walking with God in wise plans, steady diligence, and humble dependence? God is calling me (and you) to live an intentional life: I make real plans and take real responsibility, while trusting the Lord to establish my steps (Proverbs 16:1–9). Proverbs is wisdom literature, “instructions for life”, and we don’t graduate from it like we finished a Lego set once and never look back. We return again and again because we forget, we drift, we rationalize, and we need God’s repeated correction and encouragement. This is personal for me. I’ve had seasons where I avoided planning under the banner of “just trusting God,” but I’ve had to repent of that false spirituality. Trusting God is not an excuse for passivity. The intentional life is both spiritual and practical.
Main Points
Are you drifting through your days reacting to whatever is loudest and latest, or are you intentionally walking with God in wise plans, steady diligence, and humble dependence? God is calling me (and you) to live an intentional life: I make real plans and take real responsibility, while trusting the Lord to establish my steps (Proverbs 16:1–9).
Proverbs is wisdom literature, “instructions for life”, and we don’t graduate from it like we finished a Lego set once and never look back. We return again and again because we forget, we drift, we rationalize, and we need God’s repeated correction and encouragement. This is personal for me. I’ve had seasons where I avoided planning under the banner of “just trusting God,” but I’ve had to repent of that false spirituality. Trusting God is not an excuse for passivity. The intentional life is both spiritual and practical.
The Paradox of Plans and Providence
Proverbs 16:1–9 opens and closes with the tension we all feel:
- “The plans of the heart belong to man…” (v.1)
- “…but the LORD establishes his steps” (v.9)
This is not a contradiction; it’s a biblical paradox. In one sense, 100% of your life depends on your responsibility, your choices matter, your habits matter, your repentance matters, your stewardship matters. You will answer to God for what you did with the life He gave you.
And at the same time, 100% of your life depends on God, His sovereignty, His timing, His mercy, His interventions, His restraints, His providence. I may not be able to philosophically tie a perfect bow around that, but Scripture forces me to live inside it.
When I’m honest, I tend to swing like a pendulum:
- Either I act like everything depends on my plan (anxious control),
- Or I act like nothing depends on my choices (careless drift).
But God calls us to a third way: responsible planning under humble trust. Even in Acts 27, when God promised preservation in the shipwreck, Paul still told the sailors, “stay in the boat.” God’s plan did not cancel human responsibility; it empowered it.
So I want you to hear this clearly: you are responsible to have a plan. Not because you are your own savior, but because wisdom is part of faithful discipleship.
Work On Your Life, Not Only In It
Many of us are trapped in “the daily grind.” We get up, get through, make it to work or school, care for kids, keep the house afloat, and collapse. We’re working in our life constantly, yet rarely working on our life.
But Proverbs calls me to step back and live intentionally. “Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure” (Proverbs 4:26). That means I slow down long enough to ask:
- Where is my life headed?
- What am I becoming?
- What patterns are shaping me?
- What is God actually calling me to do next?
This is part of what it means to grow in wisdom: I don’t merely react; I reflect. I don’t only hustle; I discern.
And for those of us who feel overwhelmed by planning, Proverbs 25:2 gives a strange encouragement: “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” In other words, God often invites us into the process, thinking, seeking, learning, growing. He isn’t mocking your small beginnings; He’s forming you through them.
Refuse Evil Plans and Self-Justifying Hearts
An intentional life begins with moral clarity. Planning is not automatically wise; you can plan wickedness with great efficiency.
Proverbs warns:
- “The thoughts of the righteous are just, the counsels of the wicked are deceitful” (Proverbs 12:5).
- “Do not plan evil against your neighbor…” (Proverbs 3:29).
- “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit” (Proverbs 16:2).
So I need to ask you plainly: what are you planning right now? What are you rehearsing in your mind? What are you quietly justifying?
If my plans dishonor God, if they betray trust, nourish lust, feed bitterness, manipulate others, or seek advantage through injustice, then the first act of wisdom is not “plan better,” but repent. God doesn’t just evaluate outcomes; He “weighs the spirit” (Proverbs 16:2). The intentional life is not self-improvement; it’s discipleship under God’s searching gaze.
Commit Your Work to the Lord
Proverbs 16:3 is a turning point: “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.”
This is where I had to unlearn a false dichotomy: planning versus being led by the Spirit. Biblical wisdom says Spirit-led people pray, plan, and work, in that order and with that posture.
Committing my work to the Lord includes practices like:
- Starting in prayer, not tacking prayer onto the end.
- Making room for fasting and focused seeking, not only “quick prayers on the go.”
- Silence and solitude to reflect honestly before God about what is happening in my soul and in my home.
- Weekly or seasonal review: What is God doing? What must change? What must be pursued?
When I take time to seek God, He often clarifies the year, the season, the next step. And this isn’t mystical escapism; it’s submitted planning. God establishes steps when I commit my way to Him.
Seek Counsel and Plan in Community
One of the most repeated themes in Proverbs is that wise people don’t rely on their own perspective:
- “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice” (Proverbs 12:15).
- “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22).
- “Plans are established by counsel…” (Proverbs 20:18).
If you want to live intentionally, I want you to build this habit: before major life decisions, get real counsel. Not control. Not permission-seeking. Not making your community your Holy Spirit. But genuine humility that says, “I have blind spots; help me see.”
Our culture trains us to be hyper-individualistic, “figure it out alone.” Sometimes we don’t ask because we’re proud. Sometimes we don’t ask because we’re “polite” and don’t want to intrude. But in the body of Christ, love intrudes. We belong to one another.
So here’s a practical challenge: bring decisions into the light before they are final, relationships, moves, career changes, schooling, big purchases, ministry commitments. Let trusted believers pray with you and speak honestly. Many advisers don’t guarantee ease, but they often guard us from avoidable heartbreak.
Diligence When Plans Get Punched
Even good plans get hit. As the saying goes, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Life does that. The fall made work hard; friction is normal. And that’s exactly why Proverbs repeatedly contrasts diligence and sloth.
Consider these warnings:
- “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich” (Proverbs 10:4).
- “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense” (Proverbs 12:11).
- “The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns…” (Proverbs 15:19).
- “I passed by the field of a sluggard… it was all overgrown with thorns… a little sleep… and poverty will come upon you like a robber” (Proverbs 24:30–34).
- “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise” (Proverbs 6:6).
Proverbs even uses humor to expose what laziness does to the soul: the sluggard invents excuses (“There is a lion outside!” Proverbs 22:13), craves but doesn’t follow through, and becomes “wise in his own eyes” (Proverbs 26:12, 16). That’s terrifying: not merely tired, but self-deceived.
So I want to speak gently but clearly: if you’re stuck in “worthless pursuits” (Proverbs 12:11), endless scrolling, endless entertainment, endless distraction, don’t call it “rest.” Rest restores you for obedience. Worthless pursuits numb you into passivity.
The intentional life requires sweat, consistency, and faithfulness when motivation fades.
Hope for the Skillful and Faithful
Proverbs doesn’t end with condemnation; it offers hope. “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men” (Proverbs 22:29).
This is not a promise of celebrity. It’s a promise that diligence, faithfulness, and skill, under God, carry weight. God uses intentional people. He opens doors. He establishes steps. He brings fruit over time.
And remember how Proverbs 16 holds it together: I plan, I commit, I work, and God establishes. The aim isn’t self-glory; it’s stewardship. When I live intentionally, I’m not just building “my life.” I’m offering my life to God’s purposes, trusting that “the LORD has made everything for its purpose” (Proverbs 16:4).
Conclusion
The intentional life is not a choice between planning and trusting, it is planning with humility, diligence with dependence, and responsibility under God’s sovereignty.
So I want you to take one step this week:
- Write down what you believe God has put in front of you (your responsibilities, callings, and next right steps).
- Commit it to the Lord in prayer, ask Him to purify motives and establish what is right (Proverbs 16:3).
- Invite counsel from wise believers before you finalize major decisions (Proverbs 15:22).
- Cut one worthless pursuit that is feeding sloth, and replace it with one diligent practice that honors God (Proverbs 12:11).
God is not asking you to control the future. He is calling you to walk wisely today, and to trust Him to establish your steps.
Father, thank You for giving me life and calling me to live it with wisdom. Forgive me for the ways I have drifted, procrastinated, and excused laziness, and forgive me also for the times I have tried to control everything in fear. Cleanse my heart from evil plans and self-justification, because You weigh my spirit.
Lord, I commit my work to You. Establish what is pleasing to You and dismantle what is not. Give me a teachable spirit to seek counsel, receive correction, and walk in community with humility. Strengthen my hands for diligent work, and deliver me from sloth, distraction, and worthless pursuits.
Lead me by Your Spirit into an intentional life that honors Jesus. In His name, amen.
Conclusion
The intentional life is not a choice between planning and trusting, it is planning with humility, diligence with dependence, and responsibility under God’s sovereignty.
So I want you to take one step this week:
- Write down what you believe God has put in front of you (your responsibilities, callings, and next right steps).
- Commit it to the Lord in prayer, ask Him to purify motives and establish what is right (Proverbs 16:3).
- Invite counsel from wise believers before you finalize major decisions (Proverbs 15:22).
- Cut one worthless pursuit that is feeding sloth, and replace it with one diligent practice that honors God (Proverbs 12:11).
God is not asking you to control the future. He is calling you to walk wisely today, and to trust Him to establish your steps.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for giving me life and calling me to live it with wisdom. Forgive me for the ways I have drifted, procrastinated, and excused laziness, and forgive me also for the times I have tried to control everything in fear. Cleanse my heart from evil plans and self-justification, because You weigh my spirit.
Lord, I commit my work to You. Establish what is pleasing to You and dismantle what is not. Give me a teachable spirit to seek counsel, receive correction, and walk in community with humility. Strengthen my hands for diligent work, and deliver me from sloth, distraction, and worthless pursuits.
Lead me by Your Spirit into an intentional life that honors Jesus. In His name, amen.