“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 straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
In this promise Solomon was advising his son to put His trust in the LORD. Solomon had found that God is worthy of our trust. In my reading I found that the word that trust is translated from here means literally ‘to lie helpless, facedown.’ This trust is not to be taken lightly. This is a knowing that only God can direct the next step of your life and it work out the right way. It is completely letting go and letting God direct you! And the only way to trust like this is with all your heart! It is complete total dependence on God in a situation, crisis or circumstance. Or even in the day to day, mundane, little decisions in life.
Have you ever had a decision where you just simply came to end of yourself and finally you had no other choice but to trust God? Where you were at the point of helpless and even if you weren’t you may as well be lying facedown. I have had a few times like that in recent years. I am not sure why us humans can’t seem to decide to trust Him before we get to that place. I think I am better at it today than I was when circumstances forced me to it. At least I hope I am. I can tell you, He has carried me through so much stuff of life that I do trust Him with all my heart. And I have learned or at least am learning daily to not lean on my own understanding. I have at times in my prayers prayed specifically for a situation that when it worked out specifically the way I prayed, looking back I am not always sure it was the best way. I am learning to pray more for God to just continue working in my circumstances and for me not to give Him the directive. Because when I do that, when I trust Him to work it all out and yes, I do have to remind myself, not to give the directives, (Lord, I think it should look like this or that) then I am in awe of the way it works out. So sometimes when I am praying my prayer just becomes: “And Lord, that thing I’ve been asking you about, Carry on Lord, just carry on!”
I hope I live my life in a way that acknowledges Him. I try to. I fall and fail many times every day I am sure of it. But I do truly believe that when we do live our life for Him that He is working in our lives and all we have to do many times is open our eyes to see it. Most of the time I can see His hand guiding me or my situation or circumstances. But there are times when I may feel that I haven’t seen it. When I feel that way, I simply ask Him, “Lord I want to trust you in this and I want to see Your hand, please show me.” And usually, something will happen that I do see Him.
“And He will make straight your paths.” Now I know that my ability to put my trust in Him now to this extent comes from years of following Him and watching Him work. I have many stories of how the Lord guided me and some of those times, I couldn’t see the hand of God in my day to day circumstances until I was in the looking back stage. You know what they say Hindsight is 20/20. It’s true. I’ll give you one example here. Once I was working in a school, and quite frankly I was in a job I was not enjoying very much. I loved the place I was working but the job I had didn’t pay much and it was constantly just busy and I never felt I accomplished much. Well another job came available there and I put in for it and truly my boss gave me encouragement. But someone else put in for it that actually had experience in that type of job and well she got the job. I was hurt, and yes a lot pouty over it. I was like “Lord, I prayed for this and didn’t get it, and my feelings are hurt.” Less than a year later, another job came open that actually did match my skill set more and you know what, it actually paid more than the first job that had come available. It also set me on a path to grow in my skills and given me the experience I needed for many jobs over the years. I truthfully did not do a very good job in the trust department back then, but he still made a straight path for me. In spite of me. But it definitely taught me better how to lay my trust down to Him.
I am going to put the Passion Translation here. I love it’s simplicity.
“Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go.” Proverbs 3:5-6 TPT
Are you having trouble trusting Him? Ask Him to help you trust. Are you trying to give God your opinion of how it should work out? It’s best not to rely on our own opinions, we can’t see the big picture. Ask Him to guide you in your decisions. I love that this version says “become intimate with Him.” The more you seek Him, the more you will know Him, and the more you know Him, the more you will trust Him. And He will guide you and lead you in wherever you go! He promises that!
Restore 