“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” - Proverbs 3:5-8 (NIV)

I bet that if I took a survey of those who called themselves Christians and asked them, “Do you trust in God,” they would all say, of course. It is how I would answer. The question, though, is whether it is always true. The truth of the matter, is that we often think we have the answers to life and trust more in our own wisdom than the wisdom of God. Maybe you can think of a time when trusting in your own wisdom rather than God’s caused you trouble. I certainly can.

We have an almost unlimited capacity to trust in our wisdom rather than God’s, which is why Solomon says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” How do we do this? By acknowledging Him in all of our ways. This is following His precepts and principles for life that we find in Scripture. When God gives us clear guidance in His word and we choose to do something else, we are trusting in ourselves rather than in God. The end result is that we often find ourselves in a ditch. When we do follow His will, however, Solomon says that God will make our paths straight. How many detours in life might we have avoided if we had done that in the past?

What gets in our way is our own ego! Our belief that we know better than God. So the writer says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” We would never say we know better than God, but when we choose not to follow Him, we do just that. The classic definition of sin is found in Isaiah 53:6: “We like sheep have gone astray, each of us has gone our own way.”

The promises attached to these verses are significant. He will make our paths straight, where God goes before us and smooths out the bumpy path ahead. And in the second verse, he says that obedience brings health to our body and nourishment to our bones - a Hebrew way of saying a place of peace and well being.

On any given day, we have numerous opportunities to follow Him or go our own way. It might be as simple as expressing anger toward someone when we should be patient and loving. It could be stopping and giving someone a word of encouragement on a busy day when we are tempted to walk past. Trusting God is a matter of action more than anything. As you walk through your day today, trust Him by doing what He desires you to do and being who He desires you to be.

PRAYER

Father, remind me often that at its most basic, trusting You is acting on what You have told me in Your word to do. Help me to trust You by choosing obedience, even in the small things. Curb my ego that would want to go my own way. Amen.