Word For The Day: Trust in The Lord With All Your Heart
One of the greatest truths of Christianity is the idea of trusting God; in fact, you can only become a Christian if you trust in his righteousness and not your own, but once you become a Christian by trusting in his righteousness, it begins a life of absolute trust in God; a trust that must be exercised with your whole heart.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths (Prov. 3:5–6).
What does the passage mean?
First, we need to understand what it does not mean. To trust the Lord does not mean you have to be naïve or to have what some call “blind faith”. In the Bible, blind trust or faith does not exist; it would be madness to trust based on a complete ignorance of the object of our trust, it would be a faith based on something subjective. On the contrary, to trust in the Lord means to trust in his character and to trust in his promises. He can be trusted because his character is objective and thus it never changes; he is faithful and true and always delivers and fulfills his Word. In addition, you can trust in his promises because they are objective, they always come to pass.
If you do not biblically trust in God, your only other option is to trust in yourself or your own understanding. The world always tells us to trust in ourselves, that we are capable and able to do anything. However, the Bibles commands us not to lean on our own understanding. Therefore, this all means that you should make sure that you trust God and his Word and not what you think is true and good.
One more thing that the passage emphasizes is that you ought to trust him “with all your heart”. God does not want your doubts, he does not want a half trust, he wants your whole heart to lean on him. Remember that your heart is deceitful and if you lean on your own understanding, you will not be trusting him with your whole heart. Therefore, brethren, once again we see the importance of a heart that is tuned to God’s desires and Word.
Solomon then reminds us that if we trust in him with all our hearts, he will make our paths straight. Unfortunately, many times our paths are crooked because we make them way. A crooked path is more difficult to navigate than a straight path. The Lord is not out to cheat you; he gives a straight path when you fully trust in him but if you do not acknowledge him in all your ways (another way of saying “trust”), you will walk on a crooked path.
What does it mean to me?
How do you know that you have been leaning on your own understanding? If you do not read the Bible often, if you do not pray often, if you do not attend church regularly to listen to God’s Word, if you do not seek fellowship with brothers and sister in Christ, if you are a proud fool that does not receive instruction and correction, if you think you always have the answer and if you always default to your ways before seeking God’s face, then you are leaning on your own understanding. Your paths will never be straight; they will always be difficult and crooked. If you have been trusting yourself and not giving your heart to the Lord in absolute faith, I invite you to spend some time with the Lord today and ask him to forgive you and begin letting the Lord straighten your paths.
God bless you
Pastor Hector