INCREASING OUR TRUST IN GOD
Proverbs 22:17-19 NKJV
17 Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
And apply your heart to my knowledge;
18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you;
Let them all be fixed upon your lips,
19 So that your trust may be in the Lord;
I have instructed you today, even you.
In our verses for today, Solomon, the author of Proverbs, is sharing insights on how to increase our trust in the Lord.
Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise. Obviously, the words of the wise will be God's Word. Inclining our ears is more than just the physical act of hearing. This involves the attitude we take towards God's Word. There are so many things clamoring for our attention. What we pay the most attention to is where we have inclined our ears. Some have inclined their ears to news, others to sports, and others to movies, music, and entertainment. It's what we listen to the most that is the indicator of where our attention lies.
Apply your heart to God's knowledge. Applying our heart is closely related to inclining our ears. What do we have a heart for? We use the term heart for something to indicate desire. Someone with a heart for God has a desire for God. A person with a heart for God's knowledge is someone who wants to know God's ways. Even though God's ways are far above our ways, we can still learn and grow in the knowledge of God and God's Kingdom.
A pleasant thing is to keep God's words and ways within us. This phrase sounds similar to what Proverbs 4:21 says when we are encouraged to keep God's words in the midst of our hearts. This keeping God's Word in our hearts will involve our focus and our thoughts. When we are thinking about the Scriptures, we are keeping His word within us. God instructed Joshua to meditate on His Word day and night so he would see how to apply God's principles to his life. In doing this, Joshua would make his way prosperous and have good success. We have developed patterns of thinking over the years, so adjusting our thoughts is not simple, but it is doable.
Let them all be fixed on your lips. Here is the last thing in this sequence of approaching God's Word. Keeping His word in our mouth. This, again, is an entirely new way of operating. We must retrain ourselves to speak in line with the Scriptures. There is a spiritual principle of keeping God's Word in our heart and mouth. We first see it in Deuteronomy 30:14, the word is near us in our heart and mouth that we should do it. There is a strong connection between our mouth and heart and when we make that connection it moves us forward spiritually. In fact, this is how we received salvation. We believed in our heart and confessed Jesus with our mouth.
Pay attention to God's Word. Have a genuine desire to know God and His ways. Keep God's Word, which contains His thoughts, in our hearts with our focus and intentional thinking. And learn to speak God's Word out loud. These four powerful things when combined increase our trust in the Lord. Trust won't happen by accident, but trust can be developed and increased.
PRAYER
Lord, I trust You. I have a heart for You and Your words and ways. I choose to focus my thoughts on You and speak Your words out of my mouth. You have given me insight as to how to change my life, and I am listening.