Day #200: Proverbs 3:5-6

BACKGROUND:

To trust in the Lord wholeheartedly means one should not rely (lean) on his understanding, for human insights are never enough. God’s ways are incomprehensible; yet He is trustworthy. All the wisdom a person may acquire can never replace the need for full trust in God’s superior ways.


As a person trusts in the Lord and acknowledges Him (this is not a nod of recognition but an intimate knowledge of God) in all his ways, he finds that God makes his paths straight. This means more than guidance; it means God removes the obstacles, making a smooth path or way of life, or perhaps better, bringing one to the appointed goal. Proverbs teaches that those who follow wisdom have an easier, less problematic life (Proverbs 3:10, 16, 24-25).


SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

Faith is a word that you hear a lot in church. But, when it comes to living a life of faith how does it work, this thing called faith. What does it feel like? How does it act? What does it do? How do you know the difference between somebody who’s living a life of faith and someone who is not?
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I’d like to take a swing at giving you a simple and clear picture of what the life of faith looks like. As I began thinking about that I realized my definition wouldn’t be good enough. It would just be a definition to add on the pile of definitions. So I looked in the Bible for a simple definition of faith. There is in the book of proverbs, chapter 3, a couple of verses that are for many their favorite verses of the Bible. They’re amongst the greatest verses in the Bible, the greatest verses in the book of Proverbs. They tell us what real faith is all about, how it works in our lives.

“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.” Folks, thtat's faith.

Whether you’re checking out Christianity and trying to figure out how does it work and is this the kind of life you might want to live. We’re going to walk through this simple verse together today.


Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

What does it mean? Trust. Any time you trust it involves a four-letter word. You might be thinking, “love” and most of the time it does involve love but I’m thinking a different word. Any time you trust it involves the word “risk”. You have to risk in order to trust. All of life is a risk.

Ecclesiastes 10:8 says, “There is risk in each stroke of your ax.” Whatever you do in life, whatever work you do, every time you get into life rather than try to escape life there’s a risk in that. But the greatest risk of all is the risk of a relationship. And the greatest risk in a relationship is relating to God because that takes faith – pure faith.

Jesus talked about the risk of that in Mark 12:30 when He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The greatest risk and adventure in life is that of relationship and a relationship to God. Is the risk worth it? You’d better believe it is! Jesus taught us, reminded us – that the greatest mistake in life is to play it safe, to not take the risk of relating to God.

Matthew 16:25 says, “If you try to keep your life for yourself you will lose it. But if you give up your life for Me you’ll find true life.” If you try to play it safe you’ll lose all you want in life. But if you risk it. If you risk it in a relationship with God you’ll find everything you ever wanted.

Faith is risking. Remember the scene in the third Indiana Jones movie where he has to go through all those traps in order to save his father. The last one as he comes up to the edge of a cliff, a deep chasm in front of him, and he’s told to take a step forward in seeming nothingness. He steps forward and he lands on a rock ridge.

It’s not a bad picture of faith. God tells us to step forward. We don’t know where we’re headed but we land on solid rock. Some people call faith a leap in the dark. I guess you could call it that. I’d rather call it a step into the light. God gives you the next step but not the step after that so it’s a little bit scary. You can’t see where you’re going. That is the risk of faith.

There are moments in our lives when we come right up to that cliff, right up to that edge, where we have to take the risk of faith. What risk of faith are you right on the edge of right now?

Maybe it’s the risk that you’ve been coming to church for a few weeks and hearing about Jesus Christ and realizing there’s something to this. There’s something happening in my heart. There’s something to this. I’m being drawn to it. You want to keep finding out more. But there’s also something in you that wants to retreat from it. It’s a little scary. But to the point you’ve found that He’s a God who loves you, this church is a church that cares about you and there’s something practical that fits into your life. Are you going to retreat or are you going to run away or are you going take the risk of faith and follow this through to the end. That’s the risk.


Maybe it’s the greatest risk of faith God is challenging you to take right now in your life. To step over that line where you say to Jesus Christ, Jesus, I want to live my life for You. I want to give my life to You. I need You to forgive the wrong things that I’ve done. I need You to direct and guide my life. I want to step over that line that says no longer am I someone who’s on the fence, on the sidelines. I’m coming into the light and saying I want to believe in You, I want to live my life for you. It’s not just an intellectual belief. With all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, I want to love You Jesus Christ.

That’s the risk of faith. That’s that step. Maybe it’s the risk of trusting God for some area of life, some relationship in your life.


Lean not on your own understanding

Proverbs 14:12 says that in the opposite way “There is a path before each person that seems right but it ends in death.” How many of you have had the experience of knowing for sure that you were right only to find out you were dead wrong. That happens so often in our lives. We think we know what’s right but we end up dead wrong. Because our reasoning, our thinking isn’t always enough.

Charles Kettering, when he was at General Motors, when he brought his engineers in to solve a difficult problem, he put a little sign in the door that said, “Leave calculators and slide rules here,” and put a little table below it. He knew that if those engineers came in with their slide rules and calculators he’d say “Here’s a solution,” and they’d say, “No! Can’t work. Here’s why.”

That’s what we do with God a lot of times. There’s a moment in all of our lives when we need a sign that says, “Leave human reasoning here.” It’s not that God doesn’t use our reasoning, use our intellect. He uses every bit of it. But He has a reasoning, an intellect because He’s God. It’s greater than ours. There’s a moment in our lives when we have to trust Him even more than the way we can figure life out. God knows our heart. He knows what we need. But He often has a different way of giving us what we need than we would expect.

Look at Mark 10:43 - “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If one of you wants to be great you must be the servant of the rest.’” That’s not how I’d do that one. That’s not how I’d figure that one out. But God says I have a different way than your way. There’s a moment of life when you say, “God, I’m going to trust Your way.” That’s the way of faith.

Faith is relying. It’s relying on God. It’s leaning on Him. It’s saying, “God’s way not my way in life.”

Faith is not about your personality. A lot of people think faith is about being optimistic. It’s not about being optimistic or pessimistic. It’s not about being all positive all the time so that means you’re a person of faith. Some of you are pessimists. The problem with optimists is those pessimists are right a lot of the time. So how do you handle that? Faith is not about whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. The optimist sees the glass as half full. The pessimist sees the glass as half empty. The person of faith sees the glass as firmly held in the hands of God. He knows that no matter what happens in life, I can rely on Him. I can trust in Him. It’s not about your personality. It’s about where you’re leaning in life, who you’re trusting in life.

With all the resources that we have and struggle with and have to manage, here’s a practical first step for many of us. I’m going to lean on God and not on my own understanding.


In all your ways acknowledge Him.

In all your ways acknowledge Him. What does it mean to acknowledge God for who He is? If a friend walks into a room, you acknowledge them by waving at them. If the president walks into a room, you acknowledge Him by standing. When God walks into your life how do you acknowledge Him?

You acknowledge Him by obeying Him. You acknowledge Him by doing what He says because He is our maker. He is the manager and Lord of the universe. Proverbs 28:14says, “Always obey the Lord and you will be happy.” If you’re stubborn you will be ruined. Why does God want us to obey Him? He doesn’t want us to obey Him to make our lives miserable. “Always obey God and you will be miserable?” No! You’ll be happy. In fact it’s when we are stubborn we are ruined, when we become miserable in life. Who hasn’t been on that side of the verse? I’ve got my way my stubborn way. We learn this one pretty early.


James 1:22 says, “Remember it’s a message to obey and not just listen to. If you don’t obey, you’re only fooling yourself.” It’s not just about coming to church and hearing the music. It’s about doing what God moves you to do through that song. It’s not just about listening to someone talk about the Bible. It’s about doing what God shows you to do in the Bible. Here is the risk of faith that some of you need to take today. Allow into your mind the thought, to set aside the stubbornness and allow yourself to admit and think, “I’m just fooling myself. I’m coming to church week after week. I’m listening to someone talk about the Bible but I’m just fooling myself. I’m not doing anything about it.” If you’ll allow that thought, let go of your stubbornness long enough o allow those kinds of thoughts to enter your mind, the end result is God doesn’t ruin your life. When you begin to obey He makes your life happy. Faith is obeying. It’s doing what God says. Faith is activated when you act.

Colossians 3:17 says “Everything you do or say should be done to obey Jesus your lord. And in all you do, give thanks to God the Father through Jesus.” Let me ask you today, what’s the one area that God hasn’t been allowed into? Maybe you haven’t even thought about it before that you haven’t been letting Him into that area of life. Maybe it’s your business – “God, I’ll handle that one. Maybe it’s some habit in life – “God, don’t mess with that one.” Maybe it’s your sexuality. Maybe it’s a relationship. “God, that is mine!”


He will make your paths straight

What does that mean, “Make your paths straight”? That doesn’t mean a perfect life. It doesn’t mean a problem free life. It means a life that works, that gets from Point A to Point B in God’s way. He’ll make your life work. He doesn’t say He’ll make you healthy and wealthy. He doesn’t say He’ll make you comfortable, popular and thin. That’s not what this verse means. He’ll make your paths straight.

Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who trust in Him.” Whenever we come up to that moment of trust, that risk if faith in our lives, there’s something in every one of us, myself included, that think, if I take that risk, if I step over that line, if I trust God with that, if I trust God with my life what will I have to give up? It is true that there are things we have to give up to have faith.

But I’d like to turn that question the other way for just a minute and ask this. If you do not take that risk of faith, what are you going to be giving up? If you don’t take that risk of faith, what love from God are you giving up? What security and peace in your heart are you giving up? What adventure that God wants to take you on, satisfaction in life, are you giving up? If you don’t take that risk of faith, what joy are you giving up in your life?

I’m certainly not a perfect person. I struggle to have faith each day just like you struggle. But as I look back over my life I think if I hadn’t taken even those small risks of faith that God challenged in my life, what could I have given up? I wouldn’t have the wife that I have, the family that I have – the relationship we have. It’s not perfect but I wouldn’t have the joy that is there. I wouldn’t have the growth, the changes that I see in my life. They’re not perfect but there has been some growth. I wouldn’t be standing here right now looking at you enjoying what God’s doing in all of our lives. None of that would be a part of my life.

If you don’t take this risk of faith, what are you giving up? Faith is expecting. Expecting God to act.

I was reading a story in the newspaper several years ago. Lloyd Scott a runner in the London Marathon. Out of 32,875 runners he finished 32,875th place, behind a 90-year-old grandmother by the way. The reason is he ran the entire race encased in a 130 pound 1940s deep-sea diving suit. He ran the entire race wearing 22 pound led soul boots. He ran the marathon wearing a 40-pound copper helmet and 15 pound weight tied around his neck. Throughout this marathon he had 16 helpers running along with him mostly so when he fell flat on his face they would come and pick him up and get him running again. He started the race on Sunday, April 14th 9:45 a.m. He clanked across the finish line on Friday, April 19th 6:15 p.m. London officials called it the world’s slowest ever marathon races.

Why did he do it? He’s a former cancer patient who ran the race to raise money for cancer patients. He said, “Somebody’s going to be diagnose with cancer, with leukemia today and will think, If this nutty guy can do the marathon in a diving suit then there’s hope for me too. Someone cares enough about me to run a marathon in a diving suit.”

How do you know that God cares about you? He didn’t put on a diving suit. But let me tell you what God did for you. He put on human flesh. He left heaven and came to earth in the form of a man, Jesus Christ. He put on a human suit. He did it to say, I love you, I care about you. I want relationship with you. I want to be at work in your life. He didn’t run a marathon but He did go to a cross. He suffered the physical, emotional and spiritual anguish on that cross because He loves you. Because He wants to be at work in your life. Because He has a plan for your life. He wants you to know that you can rely on Him and trust Him.

Jesus didn’t raise any money but He did raise Himself from the dead. He did it to say to you, “I can give you new life! A kind of life that you never expected. You can expect Me to act in your lie because of My love for you. I came to this earth to show you, to shout to you in the clearest way possible I love you, I care about you. You can have faith in Me.” That’s why Jesus came to this earth.

What day, what problem, what relationship, what step of faith? What is the next big step of faith that you need to take? That’s where the risk is. That’s where the trust is. That’s where the obedience is. That’s where the expectation is. That’s where you can expect God to act. Proverbs 3:5-6 from The Message paraphrase “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.”

Ponder these things today. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.