Proverbs 16:9 (NASB) The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.
I’m continuing on a theme established with last Friday’s commentary and bolstered by Mike Wilson at Wednesday’s Iron Men’s meeting. Mike’s verse for the week was Proverbs 16:9. This is a very good verse to commit to memory as it is applicable to all, virtually every day. It’s short, simple and yet so incredibly powerful.
Last Friday I spoke about how important it is to keep God’s sight in front of our eye, so that we can stay on target and hit our mark. I’m going to rely on Proverbs 16:9 to expound on the archery analogy. Any archer knows that you experience off days, as well as on days. There are a multitude of reasons that can attribute to one being off their game when shooting, but I’m going to focus on one. It’s the one I believe to be the greatest and most common reason our accuracy suffers, our head. Our brain gets in the way. When a person gets to thinking too much, directing too much, correcting too much… planning too much, things are forced, unnatural and have a tendency to break down.
When we get wrapped up in “making” the arrow hit the X, the vitals, “oh, oh, oh come on pin stop shaking, stay on the target, now… no… now?!..no…NOW!!!” it goes askew. Everything in our being is commanding the shot to do what we ask, what we plan, but to no avail. Why? It’s not natural.
However, when we focus, but relax, allow our training, our muscle memory to take over and control our movements, focus on our target, allow the pin to hover and float naturally and allow the shot to “break” when it wants to, when the moment and natural mechanics dictate, rather than “send” it when we deem appropriate, the outcome will more likely be to our liking. 
Such is life, isn’t it? For the born again believer in Jesus Christ, that’s something we ought to know, right? When we are forcing something, directing, correcting, dictating and planning, without, first, giving it over to God, we’re likely going to have an off day, week, month, year, relationship, home, work, etc. For what we plan is often times not what God is directing. In planning and pursuing what we want, we’re often times fighting Him, His training (muscle memory) and “sending” an arrow that wasn’t ready to “break” naturally or was never meant to “break” at all.
When we are focused on God, when we have His sight before our eye, our body trained up, muscle memory firmly established, when we are going to Him first with everything, operating in the Spirit, the pin floats, the target is clear, the tension is gone… and then it “breaks”. It sails cleaning and precisely to the X. Why? Because it happens under God’s direction. Have a blessed weekend!
John 4:24 (NASB) God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
In full pursuit of the greatest Trophy,
Scott Pace
