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 path.
I recently have been reading ‘Boy meets Girl’ by Joshua
Harris- a book on Courtship and all that. Seated in a taxi this morning, I came
to the end of this book that has been my travel companion for the last couple
of days(mainly the past week really). So at the end of the book, the writer
goes ahead to explain his reasons for writing and lo and behold; it didn’t have
very much to do with helping you find the love of your life and all that. He
hoped that by reading the book, we’d be drawn to a more intimate relationship
with God!
He quoted Prov 3:3-5;
Alighting from the taxi, all that occupied my mind was this
portion of scripture. Memory upon memory flooded my mind! When I was a child,
we sang it as a song in Sunday school and the more I thought, the more things
that occurred to me to think about!
Trust in the Lord
with all your heart
When I thought of these words, I then had to ask myself what
their implied meaning was. If it says trust in the Lord with ALL YOUR HEART does it infer that trust
can come from only part of the heart? Does it mean that we can trust with only
a part of us- not fully/ entirely? And if we can, does that count as trust?
I quickly thought of so many instances where I trust God at
my convenience! It made me think of parts of my life where ‘IT’S SIMPLY NONE OF
GOD’S BUSINESS!’ I may not come outright and say that, however my actions do!
I will quickly and readily trust Him with my relationship
with HIM but there are things that I like to do by myself and not ‘bother Him’
because ‘I gat this!’ So in reality, I trust Him with only part of my heart.
The scripture continues to say, and lean not on your own
understanding! Trust in God with all
your heart and lean not on your own understanding. I don’t think these are
random words put together. I would like to think this choice of words is
intentional! To trust in God with all your heart, means your own understanding
MUST make it’s way out of the equation! Your understanding has to give way to
this full trust in God. In other words, you don’t lean on your ability to
comprehend (use your mental capacity to decipher) the will of God but rather
you trust where or what He has called you to in whichever season of your life!
In all your ways
acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path! I am literally squealing in
delight at this part. All of it just comes together so beautifully. It is
interwoven into the most fundamental of requirements for us as children of God.
When you trust God with all your heart and not lean on your understanding but
instead acknowledge Him, He by default will direct your path! That right there
is His response to this kind of faith in His character!
Maybe let’s define this word acknowledge. To acknowledge is
a verb- a doing word!
verb: 1. Accept or admit the
existence or truth of.
synonyms:
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admit, accept, grant, allow, concede,
accede to, confess, own, recognize
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antonyms:
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reject, deny
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2. (of a body of
opinion) recognize the fact or importance or quality of
So,
to acknowledge God in all our ways would mean we accept the existence or truth
of who God is and recognize His importance(key phrase being in all our ways).
I’ll just let that sink in for a bit.
In
every single one of our doings or our attempt at doings, we MUST accept the
importance of God. That means accept His will and what He requires of us (which
by the way is all stipulated in His word)!
When
we have done all the above, God then directs our footsteps. Only when we have
fulfilled the requirements or prerequisite of the blessing (of direction by God),
do we create atmosphere/environment for Him to come and direct our affairs!
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 path.
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