As I spend time with God every day, He is revealing more and more to me from his word. I am reading old passages with new eyes. There are meanings that I have never picked up before. Every time I discover something new I want to share with the world how great our God is! How He reveals himself to us in such small yet amazing ways. He doesn't just come out and say "Here I am". He speaks to me through His word, through other people and other various means. The Verse he laid on my heart this morning (and I actually pondered about this one a couple of months ago) was Proverbs 3:5-6. My Dad always used to quote this verse and it's one of his favorites. I've always like it too.
Proverbs 3:5-6
New King James Version (NKJV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
This is not always the easiest thing to do. When we put ALL our trust in God, we are ultimately giving up that part of us that likes to be in control. I am an "in control" person. I like to control EVERYTHING. Sometimes ever other people. So, as a control freak, this is extremely hard to do. In fact for the better part of the last 5 years, I've attempted to control everything about my life. And when it spun out of control, I lost it. Rather than leaning on God, I relied on my own strength and often felt like I failed. It's so important to remember from where we get that strength in the first place - Him. Jeremiah 29:13 also says "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." This is so true. Our relationship with God cannot, CANNOT, be something that that is done half heartedly. When we give our hearts to Jesus, accepting Him as our savior, there's no fractions in that equation. He calls for our Whole hearts and that's the least we can give Him
And lean not on your own understanding;
I LOVE this one. It is so true for me. I read in "Jesus Calling" that sometimes you feel as if you're in a fog. That you can't see the road in front of you. Boy, do I know that feeling! And it's so frustrating! You're asking yourself what's going on, God where are you, I can't see anything blah blah blah. Have you ever considered that maybe that "fog" is really God gently pushing you to focus ONLY on what's in front ot you? That maybe there are things up ahead which you cannot understand right now? Sure, they'll make sense at that time, but you're not at that point yet. When we lean on our own understanding, we're also relying on the part of us that's human and falliable. We make mistakes, we misunderstand a lot of the time. Would you rely on a subject matter expert if they made mistakes and didn't really seem to have a grip on their "subject matter"? I wouldn't either! So it is with us. We don't always understand what's going on - we can't. Therefore, it's important to rely on Him who is omnipotent and omnipresent.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
Another biggie. All Your Ways.. Not all your Way...Ways. What a powerful sentence. We as humans have a lot of ways. We're always doing something. I looked up acknowledge in the dictionary. Some other tranlations have the word "submit", but the meaning is the same:
1: to recognize the rights, authority, or status of
2: to disclose knowledge of or agreement with
3a : to express gratitude or obligation for <acknowledge a gift>
So, in essence, in all our ways, we should be recognizing God's authority as our Creator and not only that but thanking Him as well!. It is through Him that we are able to do anything really and it's important to recognize that.
And He shall direct[a] your paths.
If you notice from the first verse, the author seems to be directing this to an individual, not a group. He mentions one heart, own understanding and then goes on to mention ways and paths. Again, Paths. Not path. We walk down many roads. Roads of happiness, joy....sorrow, pain, discomfort. There are many stages to the journey of the Christian Life. Ups and downs, laughter and tears. And just like a race, all the terrain is not the same. However, there's only one finish line. And God knows precisely where it is and when we will cross it.
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