God Disposes But Man Proposes!

On By tgifmastermindsIn Opposites in the bible, Prayers For Life Changes, Prayers For New Beginnings, Prayers For Spiritual Growth
OOPs! God Wants Us To Think Outside The Box.

And again I say…OOPs!  For this week’s blog title, I have used an antithesis form of speech. Why?  Because I thought the title above would infuse the curiosity of my readers more than the title: “God Uses Opposites To Express Himself On How To Obtain Righteousness”.

Now I ask you…did it work?  Are you still with me?  Have I piqued your interest enough for you to read this blog all the way through?

Well, if nothing else, you’ve learned the definition of a new word…Antithesis!  That word refers to the juxtaposition (two things with contracting views) of opposing or contrasting ideas.  And we all know that the Bible is full of opposites expressed not only by God in the creation story in Genesis, but also by Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, and many other New Testament writers.

Below I have listed a few examples found in Genesis Chapter One that depict an antithesis form of speech or writing:

  • Light and darkness
  • Day and night
  • Earth and Sky
  • Morning and evening
  • Land and sea
  • Sun and Moon
  • Male and female

Now let’s apply scripture to the proverb that God disposes but man proposes. 

  • “Many are the plans in a human heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21
  • “To human beings belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.”  Proverbs 16:1
  • “The Lord works out everything to its proper end—even the wicked for a day of disaster.”  Proverbs 16:4
  • “In their hearts human beings plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”  Proverbs 16:9

If you wanted to compose a sentence to share that will better explain the antitheses, you could say that even when man gives his very best to a project, in the end, it is up to fate whether man’s efforts will work out or not.  Thus, Man proposes, but God disposes (brings things to fruition or extinction).

So do not be discouraged when you read opposites in the bible.  Rather, get wisdom and in all thy getting, get an understanding about God’s word.  Study to show yourself approved and allow the Holy Spirit to show you how to rightly divide the word of truth.

The moral of the story:

Recently, I was invited to teach on several scriptures from the Book of Hebrews.  The assignment called for me to first read a short story found in Our Daily Bread magazine and use it as the basis for my scripture teaching.  Because the magazine story did not fully blend in with the overall theme of Hebrews, I had to pray hard for the Holy Spirit to help me connect the dots. This is the message the Holy Spirit communed with me:  Do not reduce holy mysteries to slogans and catchy stories, my sister.  In trying to be relevant, you are only being cute and in violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred.  Having a knack for generating ‘amens’ from your audience won’t get you anywhere with the Master.  In fact, you will reap what you sow.   You can imagine, I stuck with the overall theme of Hebrews…the Old Covenant vs the New Covenant.  I was careful not to propose anything in my teaching that the Lord would dispose.

My prayer for you:

Dear Heavenly Father, we give You all the glory, honor, and praise for loving us so much that You sent down the Holy Spirit to teach and instruct us in the way of righteousness.  For you used juxtaposition terminology to instruct us in how to recognize what is life-generating and what leads to death-infused conduct.  Basically, we must embrace faith, exhibit love and practice endurance as we live out our lives and administer hope to our fellowman.  It is our prayer that You will continue to shower us with Your wisdom so that we might become more like You.  We ask that all of these various teaching methods be a blessing to others…in the mighty Name of Jesus we ask it all.  Amen.

Scripture Lesson:  “Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.” Proverbs 21:21

Click http://www.tgifmasterminds.wordpress.com every Friday for a new post from The Master’s servant manager…Me!

17 thoughts on “God Disposes But Man Proposes!”

    1. I, too, love to do research and connect the dots for various scripture verses in the Holy Bible. Seemingly, our Teacher…the Holy Spirit…infuses our curiosity the more we search for Truth in God’s word. When we dig deeper, it certainly enhances our Foundational Teachings and empowers our readers. You, too, are gifted in this ability. To God be the glory!

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  5. This is a great lesson, Sister Fowler. Thank you for sharing. It’s tempting to use catchy phrases, etc. to draw a crowd, but many times those catchy phrases detract from the message and trivialize it. Unfortunately, many pastors and teachers use them anyway. Blessings! ♥

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  6. To Dee: Bless you and yours, my sister in Christ. Praying all is well with you. I am still receiving ‘Amens’ and ‘Praise the Lord’ from saints who heard and received a blessing from the presentation the Holy Spirit gave me on Hebrews. I even received calls from friends who scolded me for not informing them that I was speaking. To appease one sister, I gave her a copy of my message. The Lord surely was with me and He alone received all the glory and praises from viewers/readers like you and elsewhere. Every Monday I start calling on the Holy Spirit to order my steps and to supply the subject He wants me to blog about by Friday. Then I set out and do my research. I just love our communications. How about your relationship with Him?

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      1. Blessings to you, my Sister. I believe this worldwide pandemic we are experiencing has just about drained everybody including the professional medical responders. Hopefully we all can hold on a little while longer. God is not through with us yet. I don’t know if I shared this with you, but I set up an Air BNB residence a year ago for the traveling nurses that temporarily need housing in the Dallas area. It has truly been a blessing for me and for the tenants. I can house two medical travelers at the same time in the two-bed/two-bath condo. I call it “Cozy Condo”. My sisters in Christ anointed every door post in the unit before I rented it to the first tenants. Have a great day.

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      2. You’re so right about this pandemic draining everyone! And yes, God is not through with us yet. 🙂 No, I did not know that you set up an Air BNB for traveling nurses!! What a wonderful idea! I forgot.. are you in Dallas? If so, we’re not all that far away from each other.

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