[ Proverbs 3:5-6 ]
There is a God-ordained command, built into His Word that calls us to trust in the Lord.
Whether it is to be born again or it is for God to guide our footsteps, there is a command for us to trust in Him. In fact, we are all hard-wired to rely on God. However, trusting is not always easy to do. It is much easier to doubt than it is to trust.
Life is full of uncertainty. There are many times we find ourselves wondering what we should do, asking ourselves which path we should take. There are moments in life where we come to a fork in the road, wondering which path we should take. However, we are given a promise to help us in these situations. Let’s take a look at today’s passage.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
At the end of the day, this is what we are all looking for. We are all needing direction from God. When we find ourselves at a fork in the road, we are all looking for God to show us the way. We are needing for God to put us on the right path. All we want is for the correct path to be made clear. There is a great confidence that comes in knowing the direction God is wanting for us to go.
We are promised that He will make our paths straight; that He will put us on the right path.
We must trust in the Lord.
That is His encouragement to us today, to trust God with our whole heart. In other words, that means to trust only in Him. What does He mean by that? He explains in the second part of verse 5 when it says, “lean not on our own understanding.”
Verse 7 says, “do not be wise in your own eyes.” In other words, Solomon is saying to trust in God and not in yourself. So why is Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, saying to not lean on your own understanding? It is because we all have a tendency to look inward for the answer to our problems. Our natural inclination is to look to ourselves to find the answer. This is what we are being told not to do.
Why should we not lean on our own understanding?
1 Corinthians 1:25
“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom...”
Proverbs 14:12
“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
We are partial in our knowledge
1 Corinthians 13:12
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
We cannot see the whole picture, but God does. We are finite, He is infinite.
In other words, the answers to our problems are not in us. Let us not lean on our own finite understanding that is impacted and affected by the presence and power of sin. Instead, we must trust in the Lord.
When it says “trust in the Lord,” what exactly are we trusting in?
In continuation of explaining what trusting God with our whole heart looks like, verse 6 says to “acknowledge Him in all of your ways…” What does that mean? What does it mean to acknowledge God in all of your ways?
To acknowledge is “to know,” “to submit," or “to seek His will.” In other words, to acknowledge is to recognize that He is God in “my” life. It means to personally know Him, to personally submit to His Lordship, and to personally seek out His will for your life. It is simply relying on God.
The fact is that we need God. We need Him. When we humble ourselves before God, realize that we truly need Him, and recognize Him as God in our own life, we begin to acknowledge Him in our life.
[Story of young lady at Sarah’s House]
Trust in the Lord with all of our heart.
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