All Your Ways
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:5 is an often-quoted verse. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." This is a great verse about trusting God. It's a heart thing, not a head thing. And trusting God will often involve going contrary to your understanding and reasoning. For example, it did not make a great deal of sense to start a church in Conroe, Texas, thirty years ago. Conroe was not considered to be an up-and-coming city. When I told my pastor that I felt impressed to start a church in Conroe, his first response was, "Where is Conroe?" And I was happy to tell him it was a long way from Lakewood. But to our understanding, it did not appear to be a great place to plant a church. And when you throw in a budget of 1,500 dollars to start, it most certainly was not leaning on our understanding. As a note, we still use our understanding, but we trust first.
The verse I do not hear quoted as frequently is verse six. "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." I believe this verse is just as valuable as verse five about trusting. Because verse six involves trusting the Lord with all our heart and not leaning on our own understanding. It takes trust and more trust to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways. And the ways that we acknowledge are the ones where direction comes.
We have been trained to think for ourselves. And there is a level of personal responsibility that dictates we should not be depending on someone to always tell us what to do. The challenge is when we take that mentality over into our relationship with the Lord. I am still surprised by how many times I do not acknowledge the Lord until my ways create a dead end, or I simply run out of options and answers. My dad and I did not discuss theology often. We differed most of the time. My dad's personal belief was that he would make his plans and then ask the Lord to bless them. I countered with my personal belief was that I would ask the Lord what His plans were because they were already blessed. It sounded pretty witty and insightful when I said it. But it was much more challenging to live out.
All my ways. How many times have we thought that we would handle the little things and leave the big things up to God? In effect, acknowledging God in all our big things but handling the little ones on our own. I know this is where I have lived too often. So, what if we made it a goal to start acknowledging God and His help in more ways this upcoming week? Before we go to work. On our way home. In our time off and in our times of pressure. Each of us is different, but I imagine that each of us can look to the Lord for His direction even more than we currently are. Maybe you are already on top of this, and you have developed the habit of acknowledging God in all your ways. If so, congrats to you, keep up the good work. As for me, I am going to pick it up in this area. I need my paths directed. His direction can make a world of difference.
Prayer
Lord, remind me by Your Holy Spirit to acknowledge You more. Jesus did this to perfection, and I want to improve. I do know Your paths are the best paths.