Pro 3:5-7 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. (6) In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (7) Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
Many times when it appears to us that the Lord is not acting, that He is not leading and directing us, we fail to understand that the “short circuit” in this matter is US, and not Him.
- Trust in the Lord with all your heart
- Do not lean on your own understanding
- In all your ways acknowledge Him
…and THEN He will make your paths straight. But when we are wise in our own eyes, inevitably we are going to go down the wrong path to evil.
Its is an amazingly easy thing to forget. To start trusting in ourselves, leaning on our own understanding of things, living our daily lives as if the Lord were irrelevant (failing to acknowledge Him). When we do this, we cannot expect that He will lead us in the good and right way. It seems that the Lord just backs off of us and says “Ok, you want to do this your way instead of trusting in Me and acknowledging Me in every step you take? Go for it and let’s see how long it takes you to wake up.”
We are surrounded by substitutes for Christ. Books, seminars, programs – all telling us “this is the way. Come this way. This is the solution to your troubles.” But these things are cheats and deceivers. Embrace them and you will not be trusting in and acknowledging Christ in all your ways. And you will not experience Him directing and leading you.
TRUST Him! Acknowledge the Lord in everything you do, in every way you go as you travel through this fallen world. His promise is that those who walk by faith and not by sight will be led in the narrow way that ends in life.
Thank you, Pastor, for including verse 7 in the quote. So many times I hear only verses 5 and 6, but as the Word continues, we are to not be wise in our own eyes, fear the Lord (the visible churches these days present a God who is our buddy rather than a holy God), AND turn away from evil. This reminds me of how American Christians love to quote the scripture out of 2 Chronicles 7, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face AND turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (Emphasis mine) We have prayer meetings praying for our nation, our leaders, etc. and yet we’ve seen things get worse. I believe it’s because we haven’t fulfilled the requirement God laid out, just as in the scripture in Proverbs states: we haven’t turned from evil. We wink at sin in our midst, people living together out of wedlock, watching horror in evil and perverted movies, pornography rampant among church members (I’ve heard a statistic that 75% of men claiming to be Christian’s look at pornography), church leaders supporting abusers and accusing the victims, sexual abuse committed by church leaders being covered up, and so on. My husband is a computer programmer and he said in programming, if there’s an AND statement, everything in the statement must be satisfied. It’s not an OR statement: this OR that, the command must include everything in the statement. What a perfect analogy to what the Lord is commanding in His word! It’s not only to humble ourselves, to acknowledge Him, to seek His face, to not be wise in our own eyes, to pray (and as Jesus said, we are to not forsake these things!), but it also includes turning away from our evil ways! Ezekiel 8:6 says, “And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing—the utterly detestable things the Israelites are doing here, things that will drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see things that are even more detestable.”” I know I have evil ways I need to turn from, whether it be selfishness, outbursts or anger, or letting bad words “slip” out of my mouth, this is a call to me for turning from evil. Thank you again, Pastor. I needed this.
Thanks!