“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.” Proverbs 3:5-6
I was recently speaking with a mentor about life and struggles and how to reconcile it all. He shed new light on this verse, a familiar verse, one I commonly reference. Sometimes the familiar overshadows the powerful, and I had lost sight of the power behind these words.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
How many situations are you dealing with right now that you just can’t make sense of? My uncle has cancer, and I don’t understand it. A friend of mine has chronic pain and cannot care for her child. A woman desperately wants a child and God says no to the pleas for a pregnancy. Family relationships are dysfunctional. You want to be in a different place or phase and yet there you are, still waiting. Job loss. Health problems. Marriage problems. Life. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.
And lean not on your own understanding.
Logic is often the enemy of faith but trust trumps critical thinking. Every. Time. My mentor reminded me of this. The Bible is full of stories-examples, not exceptions-that display this truth.
Barren women became pregnant.
The sick were healed.
The dead were raised.
The weak defeated the strong.
Rulers released slaves.
God remembered humans.
God spoke to humans.
Relationships were restored.
Food fell from the sky.
Murderers became Christ followers.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Whatever your impossible situation is, take heart! Trust must follow when our own understanding cannot suffice. Before these ordinary people experienced the extraordinary side of impossible situations, their understanding would not and could not reconcile their doubt. But they leaned not on their own understanding and trusted in the Lord with all their heart. They acknowledged him in all their ways, and he made their paths straight.
And He will do the same for us. We just have to hold tighter to trust than to logic.
Photo source: Yuriy Seleznev/Shutterstock
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