Proverbs 16:3 -- On Works and Thoughts and Hearts

"Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established."
Proverbs 16:3


This is interesting as compared to the idea of "as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7) ... it seems that we have some evidence that our actions come from our thoughts, but this verse shows evidence as well that our thoughts come from our works. Perhaps what God is showing us here is that we can start either way, with actions or thoughts, and get to the right place (both united), as long as we are committed to God and open to the changes that he is making in us as we do his will.

One thing that helps us in doing this is committing, as is hinted at here, but another thing that comes to mind is the idea of the "mighty change" of heart that it talks about in many places, but my favorite is maybe Mosiah 5 because it also mentions that God can take away our desire to do evil: "...the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent .... has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:2). It also reminds me of the experiment from Alma 32:27 "...experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words."

Believing isn't instant conversion, even in the mighty change of heart, struck down by an angel stories. Maybe a dramatic or unusual experience is part of our testimony, but it can't be just that, or Laman and Lemuel would never have fallen away. We have to work at it, and make room for God in our hearts. So, we can start with a belief and get our actions to conform to what we believe with time, repentance, and effort, or we can do as this verse suggests and start with the actions, and pray and work and practice with feeling the spirit and listening to God, and knowing our own hearts, until our thoughts come into line. And honestly, probably some of both. We seem to be self-conflicted a lot, so becoming united internally is one of our biggest struggles. It is hard to learn to communicate with God when we don't even know ourselves very well.

Today, let's go to God with whatever we have, and pray for help to get the rest in order. He will help us, and teach us little by little until we get it, as long as we don't give up on him or on ourselves. :)