Proverbs 3:1-12
Saturday, 22 January 2022
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…” –Proverbs 3:5
A believer is called to an entire lifetime of trust in God. Simply believing in God is not enough; our trust in Him is to be demonstrated in the practical outworking of faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Trusting in the Lord first and foremost is to trust Him as our Lord and personal Saviour- “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9). This puts us in right standing with God as we decide to give the rein of our life to Him. He then dwells in our heart by the Holy Spirit and begins to direct our lives according to His will and purpose for us
From then on starts a life of trusting Him! It’s become quite easy for us put our trust in many things. We trust the engineers and people who built our house that it won’t fall on our heads; we trust the bank with our money; we put tremendous amount of trust in the pilot and the plane to fly us safely…..the list goes on. We exercise trust all the time, quite unthinkingly. When trust is the practical outworking of faith, it is to say when we trust God, we show that our faith in Him is real!
All of us at some point in life are tempted in this aspect: "do not be wise in your own eyes" (V.7). We tend to think we know better than God, but the reality is that, like Adam and Eve who sinned, our wisdom and understanding is weak and unreliable. We persist in trying to do things our own way and our actions give the picture that they are better than God's ways— how foolish we are!
What is the alternative to leaning on our own understanding? It is to hold on to God's truth written in His Word! Proverbs 2:6 says: “For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” What we receive from Him is the solid, reliable understanding on which we can build our lives. This means to take every bit of our lives and acknowledge that it is all part of our journey with God. There is no part in a believer's life that is secular: God is with us in the church as well as the office; He is with us as we drive our cars or mow our lawn; when we do our office work or chores at home; when we play games or watch television—every kind of activity whether in the home or outside is to be governed by His understanding not ours. All this is sacred-not just being in church or Bible study. Let's acknowledge God in all our ways.
Learning to trust in God with all our hearts is to be prepared to go wherever He is taking us. It may not always be the path of least struggle but later on, looking back we will always see that it was the path planned by God. Sometimes we may encounter insurmountable obstacles in our way that brings in doubts and fears; but this is all part of learning to trust in the Lord with all our heart.
It's a promise that as we trust in Him we will eventually reach the destination that He has in mind for us— an eternity of joy in His presence. Jesus spoke of the narrow road that leads to life (Matt.7:13). The path to eternal life is in Jesus the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). Those who find it and walk in it guided by the Lord will reach eternity.
Thought for the Day: “The beautiful thing about this adventure called faith is that we can count on Him never to lead us astray.”
- Chuck Swindoll