Trusting God
“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 3:5-7
Webster’s dictionary defines “trust” as a verb that means “to place confidence in; to depend on.” The verse above encourages us to place confidence in the Lord and to depend on Him, not ourselves. How are we, as imperfect humans, supposed to do that?
The verse tells us to trust with all of our heart – this is a risk and basically means to sign up for something without knowing the outcome. For any of you that have a hard time taking risks, this is one of those things like the big swing at the ropes course or the climbing wall. You just have to do it, jump in with both feet, with all that you have, trusting that the rope and the counselor will catch you. You can have the option to not participate, but you miss out on an exciting experience and connecting with your friends.
Our “understanding” can often mean our human logic, our fears, and our previous experiences. We want to trust ourselves because we can control the outcome (so we think). We want to play it safe, making sure it is predictable and something that we would choose. This idea makes me think about learning how to swim as a child. I was very confident in the deep end when I had the side to hold on to. I could go from one side to another easily without having to really let go and just jump in.
Trusting the Lord means jumping in and believing that He will catch me and not let me sink. The verse also explains that in all we do, we need to acknowledge Him. This is something we can do, even if we are afraid to trust.
We can call out to God, ask for help, and remind ourselves that He is in charge and much bigger and stronger than we are. We can acknowledge that He is in control, and the verse gives us a definitive statement – “He will make your paths straight.” He will catch us, direct us, and save us from ourselves. All we need to do is reach out and admit to ourselves that we can’t do it alone.
Take away: Remind yourself that God promises to “make our paths straight.” All He asks is that we remember Him, ask Him for help, and allow Him to work. We need to just get out of the way!