My dear readers,

Proverbs 16:9: “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”

Man has always believed that his life is in his hands alone. He decides his next step in life. He plans his life with the certainty of tomorrow. Many do not seek a higher being like God for direction unless they are desperately boxed in and at wits’ end. Thinking he is the captain of his own destiny, man basically continues to do what is right in his own eyes. The moment he is old enough to think for himself, he heads in the direction of self-sufficiency and total independence. He works hard. He plays hard. He enjoys as much of life as possible. More responsibilities like the cares of a family life will not stop him. These may detour his life a little, but he manages to take them in his confident stride. He gains more and more confidence in himself with greater financial stability. This brings with it more control and power to taste and live according to his heart’s desires. He travels and visits places that many can only dream of. He enjoys all kinds of sports, from winter skiing to jet skiing in any ocean of the world, etc. There is no stopping his enjoyment of life to its fullest. The world is his oyster. Not only that, he is able to control the future of his family with all the money he has at his disposable. He plans his children’s education and ensures that they get into the best schools. His life is great.

Then there are the elite in society with even greater power. They control the lives of millions as they sit on the thrones as kings, presidents, and prime ministers. Some of them are despots who have amassed powers that only death could take away from them. Anyone they think might be a threat to their iron grip on power, regardless of relationships including family, will be removed permanently, preferably by a brutal death as a warning to others. They are feared and are untouchable. They get away with murder! They brutalize and massacre even their own citizens at will, as what is happening in Myanmar. Injustices and unwarranted deaths prevail all over our sin-sick world. There seems to be no end to such wickedness as our world is littered with murderers and powerful despots throughout our dark history.

How can anyone make sense of such great injustices? Without God and Christ, it is impossible. The repeated nightmares of hopelessness in a world where might is right have resulted in broken societies escaping behind drugs, alcohol and lustful desires to find temporary relief from a dark reality they are completely helpless to rid of but forced to live in. Sticking their heads into the sand like the proverbial ostrich seems to be the best way of thinking in order to get out of bed every morning and not end up a paralysed, self-induced-comatose-walking dead.

Thanks be to God, we have hope in Christ. Regardless of how dark this sin-filled world is or becomes, “a man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” The verb “to devise” means “to carefully plan and execute,” like a weaver weaving a carefully designed tapestry. With every stitch his tapestry comes to life. The design will soon appear. This design is his life! This is truer of men with power than those without. They design companies and some even nations after their own image and of course for personal gain and fame. With the help of many like them, they spend years building like a patient brick builder, one brick at a time. They truly believe they are in total control especially when they can see their plan coming to fruition. Once they have done so they grip it tightly to maintain it for as long as possible. This is despite the fact that history has revealed that whatever they do in their lifetime could easily be undone by the next generation. Nothing done by man lasts. But they do not seem to care. Each and every one of them is like a little mouse running on a wheel going nowhere. The difference is that some mice run on larger wheels than others. But every mouse, big or small, will stop running one day. They will all die and end up in the same eternal place called the Lake of Fire. By then, they will realize that they have never been in control of their lives. But it will be too late.

But if they will acknowledge that they are not in control of their lives, there is hope. The LORD, who is the God of the Bible, is in absolute control. Man devises his ways, but when it comes to the execution of it, the LORD has been directing every man’s way. We are living in His world. He is in control of everything in His world. Whether man acknowledges Him or not, He still controls them. Every step man takes, including the direction he heads toward, the LORD controls. The end of every man is in the hand of God. Does this mean that because man is not in control of his life he cannot be blamed for all the wrongs that he has committed? The answer is an emphatic No. Every single human being is responsible to God for every motive, thought, word, and deed committed. God is God who made us. Man finds this truth impossible to accept because it makes man small. This truth humbles him.

Some might find this unfair. It is only unfair if man is born without sin. But every man is conceived and born in sin. The only exception is our first parents, Adam and Eve. They were created perfect. By Adam’s sin, he plunged humanity into sin and death. Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” When sinners keep on sinning, even as he continues to believe that he is not a sinner, it does not change the fact that he sins. Man is heading in the direction of hell from the moment he is born.

Yet in the midst of this sinners-and-sin-filled world, there is a sovereign God who is good and merciful. If He is not in absolute control, He would be unable to execute His perfect plan of salvation for man. Thank God He is in control. Christ Jesus came and lived and died on the cross for our sins. Evil men and the devil have tried throughout the ages to thwart God’s salvific plan to save sinners. If not for the LORD’s sovereign control over man’s steps, including many of man’s diabolical, evil and wicked steps, all men would be doomed to die in sin and be deservedly punished in hell.

The truth of God’s sovereignty in directing every step of man, sinners and saints alike, brings great comfort in life, especially in times like this pandemic. What the world is experiencing now is part of God’s great plan. Be comforted, even though we may not know fully, but know that it will all lead toward our God’s holy and sovereign will to His great glory and the blessing of God's children. Amen.