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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Trusting God in all things is a foundational precept…for faith in the Word of God is His will for each of our lives. Trusting God unreservedly is the center and circumference of all wisdom because He is the beginning and the end of all knowledge. It is marrow to the bones, honey to the taste, the wellspring of light, life, love, and hope. Having faith in God is the fountain-head of all that is good, and it pleases our heavenly Father. For without faith it is impossible to please Him. Trusting the Lord with all of our heart is not only a positive and beneficial duty, but it negates the elements of fear and doubt, it holds us firm in life’s storms and stresses, and it replaces self-confidence with a trusting ‘God-confidence.’  Trusting the Lord with all our heart is to set aside one’s own desires and imaginings to do His will. It is to die to all that is of self…self-image, self-reliance, self-importance, self-centeredness. Trusting the Lord is to believe His Word and to live by the knowledge that His Word is true and altogether perfect. God has outlined His plans and purposes to humanity and communicated them to us through His Word, and God expects an intelligent response to the promises He has given us. He expects us to display a whole-hearted, conscious dependence upon all He has said without doubt or distrust, without fear or misgivings. The wisest man who ever lived advised his sons to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding,” and his prudent advice is something we should all seek to consciously follow, today, as a matter of will. Solomon listed many reasons that we should believe God’s Word, for the one who trusts in the Lord is happy and protected. He does not need to fear a bad report, for his heart will remain unshaken. The one who places their faith in the Lord does not seek help from those that are proud and deceitful, because the faithful love of the Lord surrounds them, protects them, and underpins their lives. Our commitment to the Lord must incorporate our whole spirit, soul, and body. Our trust in Him should be reflected in our lifestyle, our outlook, our attitude, our conversation, our character, and our world-view. When we place our trust in Him, with unwavering, child-like confidence, He fills our heart with His own perfect peace that passes understanding. He gives grace to the humble and rejoices over us with singing. Our trust in the Lord should not only be in connection with the salvation of our soul, but should become the driving force of our entire being, influencing the direction of our lives, for He knows what is best for each one of us, and is working in each of our lives from an eternal perspective. The plans He has for each one of His own, reach beyond our knowledge or understanding. How foolish to drink from the brackish waters of this world’s broken cisterns when He floods our hearts and lives with the sparkling river of life. His ways and thoughts, wisdom, and knowledge are so far above our little ways, limited thoughts, and foolish imaginings, and yet so often we choose our own fleshly wisdom and meager understanding to direct our path. We are not to prop ourselves up with our own ill-advised understandings but rather, we should take Him at His Word and trust in the Lord with all our hearts…even on those occasions when we don’t understand. Some years ago, after my mom passed away from cancer, she left my family this verse. It was the only verse bookmarked in her study Bible. It was then that I discovered a truth that removed forever any concerns I had about God’s will for my life, which path to take, which direction to follow, which decision to choose. After that, I discovered a principle that I have proved to be true on many occasions. It all comes back to acknowledging Him in everything and trusting Him in every eventuality of life. When the eyes of our heart are focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, in love, and all we desire is to know Him more, and to please Him in everything we do, then it matters not which path you take, for He will be there leading you, and He will be there guiding you, no matter what path you choose. This simple truth is written clearly in Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight – He will direct your path – He will guide you in the way to go.” To acknowledge the Lord is to know Him and to have intimate fellowship with Him. It is to trust what He says, believe His Word and obey what He commands us to do. It is to abide in Him and depend upon Him alone. It is to walk in spirit and truth, to grow in grace, to be ready to listen to His guiding voice and to follow His lead. We are not simply to afford Him an occasional glance or only turn to Him in times of crisis or distress. We are not to ignore Him when things are going well, or wander away from Him when someone more interesting comes along. We are not to keep Him boxed up until we are on the way to a Church meeting. We are to acknowledge Him at all times, under all circumstances, and in all our ways, whether pleasant or difficult, joyous or distressing. We are to develop a Christ-centered perspective, in all we say, and do, and think, and are. Too often we forget this proverb. Too often we acknowledge ourselves in all our ways and direct our own paths, causing ourselves to stumble because we forgot to acknowledge Him in ALL our ways and only call out to Him in times of trouble…and all too often it is a crisis that we ourselves have caused. But human self-sufficiency and fleshly self-dependence is not what God wants to develop in us. He wants us to develop a Christlike dependence on Him. He wants us to acknowledge Him in all our ways…in the same way that Christ said and did only those things He heard from the Father. This simple truism in the book of Proverbs does much more than express a life-truth or teach a nice lesson. It is a divine promise, that is revealed elsewhere in Scripture. It is a conditional promise that contains an element of human obligation. God will lead and guide us in the best way possible when we acknowledge Him in all our ways…putting Him first, and trusting Him, even when we don’t understand. We are to abide by His will and His conditions alone, for God will only meet us on His terms and not on ours. There are many ways that God can make our paths straight when we acknowledge Him in all our ways. He may use the advice of other Christians or bring a verse of Scripture to our notice. He may permit His inner peace to flood our heart and mind as we keep our eyes looking to Him. He may allow converging circumstances to bring about the right conclusion and He may take time to make our way straight, or He may direct our path instantaneously. As we acknowledge Him in all things, He will direct our path in His ways and at His time, for our eternal benefit and for His greater glory. If it is our desire that God will make our path straight, He is to be acknowledged in all things, and in every area of life. It is not in one way, or some ways, or many ways, or most ways that we are to acknowledge the Lord. We are charged to acknowledge Him in all our ways. And when the eyes of our hearts are fixed on Jesus and He is the focal point of our soul in all things, then we find that He truly is directing our path in the best possible direction. When our love for Him becomes the single, central longing of our hearts then it matters not which way we choose to take, for we will find that He is there leading, directing and communing with us…in love.