Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline;
don't sulk under his loving correction.
It's the child he loves that God corrects;
a father's delight is behind all this.
Proverbs 3:5-12
Each day our lives enter the unknown. Many of the events are shrouded in darkness and uncertainty. Moreover, important decisions need to be made. Trials occur that defy explanation. Burdens are heaped upon our backs. Events transpire that can affect our future. People, finances and health rarely go in a way we had expected or desired. Even Jesus said each day has enough troubles of its own. But did He forget to mention the troubles from yesterday and the anxieties of tomorrow? Life can be overwhelming. We know all about worry. We know all about stress. We know all about fear. We know all about hopelessness.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6).
We are called to submit to His leading. We are called to realize our hopelessness and trust Him. The need to trust God is one of the most basic and fundamental tenants of the Christian faith. We are saved by trusting God and we persevere and succeed in the faith by continued trust in Him.
God wants us to realize that our thinking and reason is flawed. He wants us to realize that our emotions and feelings are often contrary to His will. He wants us to realize that when we lean on our own understanding we neglect the life of faith in utter dependence on Him that He desires.
Other times we may make the right decision and diligently seek to honor the Lord with our lives only to find out things don’t evolve the way we expected. In these cases we too must continue to trust the Lord and lean not on our own understanding.
Just because we are to trust the Lord in everything, it doesn’t mean that we are to not make any decisions. We dare not to lean on our own understanding, but as verse 6 declares, we are to lean on Him. We are to acknowledge Him an all our ways. God is not calling for an anti-intellectual or anti-emotional faith, what He is calling for is for our will to be submitted to His. We are called to acknowledge God in all of our ways. In all of our planning. In all of our thinking. In all of our dreaming. In all of our activity. In all of our spending. In all of our decisions. The small as well as the great. The personal as well as the corporate. The temporal as well as the eternal.
Only when we believe God will make our paths straight, despair gives way to joy, worry gives way to faith, anger gives way to love, gloom gives way to hope and suffering gives way to abundant life.
He is a God who is always with us. He is a God always worthy of our praise. He is able to make straight paths for those who trust Him, acknowledge Him and lean not on their own understanding.
