“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.” Proverbs 3:5-6
We are in the middle of our biggest trial and hardest journey ever for our family since we lost our 3rd child, our second son, shortly after he was born a little over a month ago. “We Will Trust Him No Matter What” has been our battle cry and has been our rallying point through this entire process. This verse (Prov 3:5-6) gives me so much to think about and process but it also means so much more to me now after going through the worst pain of my entire life.
He makes a point in verse 5 to say “Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart”. The Lord knew that we would have no problem trusting him with parts and pieces of our heart, especially when life is easy and we are coasting. But when things get tough and the heat gets turned up, giving up ALL of our hearts and trusting him with the shattered pieces is not as easy and is a literal choice and sacrifice of praise (Heb 13:15) to Him. Your brain is not hard wired that way. When your favorite pet bites you on the hand, it’s natural to not trust offering them food or not trust petting them at first. If someone hurts your feelings, you don’t trust them as fully with your heart for a little while until they re-prove themselves to you. But with the Father….he doesn’t have to prove anything to us or re-prove Himself to us. He is good (Psalm 100:5) and His love endures forever (1 Chronicles 16:34). Since the Father never changes, then those truths will always remain, no matter our circumstances or what road we have been chosen to walk. And He doesn’t ask us to give Him our whole heart, He tells us to. Because He promises something in return if we do….but I get ahead of myself.
The next part of verse 5 says, “and do not lean on your own understanding.” BAM!! It’s like the Father created us and knows us inside and out (Psalm 139:23). He KNOWS that when we get into a tight situation that because we think we have it all together, instead of relying on Him more and giving Him more of us, that we will fight it and try to do more and try to control it all ourselves. My wife and I have done a lot of personality testing and training on ourselves and through marriage counseling but also on our staff in our offices and businesses to be able to properly lead and manage people where they are strong and help them where they are weak. One of the programs we use is called the Kendall Life Languages Profile. In this testing, that was developed by my good friend and genius Fred Kendall, you will always have a primary personality and then a secondary personality. The profile also shows you the personality you will default to when you are stressed out. So my personality I will always try to turn to when I get squeezed (this is why I need Jesus. Every. Single. Minute) is a Shaper. This personality is the one that creates a plan, works a plan, gets every one else on a plan, and CONTROLS everything. Wow, isn’t that nice? LOL! Not everyone is like that, but the Lord has brought me through fire and training over the past 3 years of my life to teach me that no matter what I think I know and no matter how good I am at my job and at life….“lean not on your own understanding“. Sometimes what seems completely logical in the natural and what seems like the no-brainer, best decision in the natural is not what the Father wants and sometimes what the Father is directing you to do seems like the most ridiculous thing in the world. Take for example the very first (and most pivotal I might add) city the Israelites had to attack and conquer after they entered into the promised land: City of Jericho.
Joshua was a fearless leader and was the most incredible military man they had. But the Lord told him as he prayed for a victory over Jericho that He wanted him to send his best men to scale the walls and bring the rain on his enemies and that by their strength of arms they would defeat them……. What?? Ohhhhh, that’s right…that’s not what the Father said at all. What he said was (in Jim Bob-ese) “Hey Captain Josh. I know you guys are the best ninjas in the world and we could really kick tail in there if I just opened the gate for you, but I have something else in mind. I want everyone to have NO OPTION but to praise Me and give Me the glory for this victory, especially since this is the very first city and is the first fruits that I told you that you would dedicate to Me anyway because I’m yo daddy. So instead of going all Jackie Chan on them, I want you to just march around the city for a week. While you march, I don’t want anyone to say a word. And on the last day I want you to march around it and sing praises to me and shout really loud and I’m going to knock the whole city down.” (Joshua 6). The thing about that story that gets me every time isn’t even so much the ridiculousness that the Lord told him to do….it was that Joshua didn’t even blink an eye. The most powerful man and the number 1 chosen man ON EARTH, who is the most incredible military man of his current day, had the Lord tell him the absolute worst battle strategy ever and he literally goes, “You got it big Daddy, let me go tell my peeps.” And he fist bumped the Lord, double checked everyone was circumcised and went to work. If he had “leaned on his own understanding”, people would have died that day.
Verse 6 says: “In ALL your ways acknowledge Him”. Again, He makes a point to remind us that when He says ALL…..He’s meaning AAAALLLLLLLL. I picture Him standing there telling me this like I would tell my son (he’s 5). “Harper, I want you to pick up all your toys and put them up and then we can watch TV.” He scampers off and picks up one thing and leaves the rest and goes to watch a show. “I come back and go….Harper??? I told you to pick ALL of this up, son.” Harper will say something like (he’s a negotiator) “But dad, there’s tooooo much!!! I picked up that one car, that’s enough.” To that I reply, “No sir, I said to pick it ALL up buddy. That means ALL of it.” Can’t you just see the Lord sitting with us on this verse and saying, “Jim Bob, what are you doing, son?? I told you to trust in Me with ALL your heart and to acknowledge Me with ALL your ways….when I say ALL……I mean…..ALLLLLLL” And what do we do? We go , “But, but but, Dad!! That’s sooooo much!!!! I’ll trust You with my finances this month, but my marriage….eh…. I need to handle that part” or “I know, I know, geez. I acknowledged You helping me with my mortgage, but I really worked hard on our business….can’t I take that one???” But that’s not His heart and that’s not what He tells us to do. He says to trust Him with ALL of ourselves and to acknowledge him is ALL of our ways.
Just like Joseph. In every single struggle that Joseph went through and in every single victory, he acknowledged the Lord. Even when Pharaoh himself called Joseph out of the prison to interpret a dream because the Lord had given Joseph the gift of interpretation, he did it. Genesis 41:15-16 says, “And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” So Joseph’s reputation had gone before him and the story of him interpreting the dreams of the other 2 prisoners had reached the ears of the most powerful man in the world. He could have easily taken the credit for it and said, “You bet man. You tell me the dream, I’ll tell you the meaning.” But that’s not what Joseph said, “Joseph answered Pharaoh, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”. He immediately directs the focus back on the One whose power rested on him and who had given him the gifts he possessed. Crazy, right?!?
The last part of that passage in vs 6 says, “and He will make straight your paths.” Does anyone else find it vital that it doesn’t say, “And the Lord will make your way smooth and easy”?? It says, “Straight”. There is always a purpose and a direction that the Father is taking you to. And it doesn’t matter what you do, His purpose will be fulfilled, one way or another. (Job 42:2). He promises to direct you straight to his purpose if you stay in line with his will. In Joshua chapter 1, the Lord promises to give Joshua and the Israelites all the land that their feet touch, but the only catch to that and the only thing the Father asks Joshua to do is this:
“Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.8This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:6-9 emphasis mine)
As long as Joshua stayed in the word every minute and did not deviate from it, and as long as long as he followed those precepts and took everything before the Lord, the Father vowed to bring him into all that He had promised them since they left Egypt. But even here, He never tells Joshua that his paths and journey will be “easily done and no big deal”. They still had to do their part and go take what was rightfully theirs. They had to defeat the enemy nations that were taking up ground that the Lord had labeled for the Israelites. They had to FIGHT. There were casualties, but they kept moving forward on their “straight” path that was full of struggles along the way. The Bible actually guarantees us that we will have trouble (John 16:33) but that we can “take heart” because our Father has “overcome the world”. So what do you do when everything is good? And what are you supposed to do when it feels like everything is crashing down around you? I think the verses of this song say it best:
“If my heart is overwhelmed and I cannot hear Your voice, I’ll hold on to what is true though I cannot see. If the storms of life they come and the road ahead gets steep, I will lift these hands in faith I will believe
I remind myself of all that You’ve done, And the life I have because Your Son
Love came down and rescued me, Love came down and set me free, I am Yours I am forever Yours. Mountain high or valley low, I sing out remind my soul, That I am Yours I am forever Yours
When my heart is filled with hope and every promise comes my way. When I feel Your hands of grace rest upon me
Staying desperate for You God. Staying humbled at Your feet. I will lift these hands and praise, I will believe” Love Came Down by Brian Johnson
So no matter what, whether your “heart is overwhelmed” or if your “heart is filled with hope”, you lift your hands to the One who “Was and is and is to come” and you praise Him. You worship Him to remind your very soul of all the trials He has walked you through to this point to remind yourself and your family that you CAN do this with God. Remember what a young David told King Saul when he doubted whether or not he could defeat Goliath???
34But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.36Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” 1 Samuel 17:34-37.
David never said, “Dude, I’ve killed harrier guys than Goliath and look at my biceps King (insert awkward flexing scene), I can totally take this guy.” No, he recounted the times before that the Lord had delivered him from other trials and says that the same God who delivered him from the other valleys in his life will surely deliver him from this one. That’s faith.
In our greatest trial…..we remember. We remember the victories the Father has brought us through our entire lives and especially the last 11 years since we have been married. And we “stand on the promises of God”, and KNOW that the same God who walked us through those trials then, is walking with us through this journey now.
So we praise Him.
JB