Welcome to Paul Tripp's Wednesday's Word podcast. I'm Dalton, a member of the Paul Trip

Ministries team. Join me each week as I read aloud Paul's popular Wednesday's Word devotion.

You can subscribe to our email list to receive this devotional straight to your inbox each week,

or you can read online at paultrip.com slash Wednesday, or on Facebook, Instagram, and the Paul

Trip app. This week, we'll hear a poem from Paul that reflects on life's unexpected twists and turns

and the unwavering faithfulness of God who walks with us through it all. Here's this week's Wednesday's

word.

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16, 9.

As you look back over your life, with all its twists and turns and highs and lows, you can be sure of one thing. You could never have written your own story. You are not the author of your

life. God is. Every aspect of it, every location, situation, relationship, triumph, defeat,

sunny day, and dark night was written into his sovereign book before you took your first breath.

Your story has been written by the wise, powerful, and gracious hand of the King of Kings.

But something else is equally true. You have not been passive.

You have made countless, mundane, and dramatic decisions along the way,

each one contributing to who you are,

where you are, who you are with, and what you do. You would not be where you are today if you had

made different decisions. Each choice was formative. Every decision contributed to the shape, content,

and direction of your life. You were desiring, thinking, meditating, choosing, conversing, and acting

all along the way. Nothing about your journey has been robotic. Here's the big question. If God

determines everything, then do your decisions matter? How do we put these two seemingly

contradictory truths together? The Bible teaches us that our decisions are important,

...