Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your
paths.”
People are always looking for directions. “What do I do now?” “Where am I to go?” “Should I take this
job or that job?” “Should I marry him?” …And the biggest – “What is the will of God for my life?” "DIRECT MY PATH...PLEASE!"
Finding direction, like finding purpose presents great
challenge. Some will tell you that
life is (or should be) easy. Yet,
after the fall of man, God made it clear that not everything in life WOULD be
easy. (Here is where some will be
tempted to turn me off…don’t do it…hear me out for a minute.)
Life was designed to be easy, but when man sinned against
God, things changed. Looking at
the life of Jesus, we discover that much of what He encountered was not
easy. Obviously Calvary and the
cross, but I am talking about just how He had to deal with the disciples,
Pharisees and even just people in general. AND, without question, Jesus had a pretty strong
understanding of the will of God. This is why I am frustrated when people, in the name of
simplicity, trivialize the gospel and say, “If you know God’s will…it is easy.”
And, “If it is not easy, you must be out of God’s will.” They forget that as Jesus prayed
declaring, “Not My will, but Father, Your’s be done.” He was sweating drops of
blood. NOT EASY!
We live in a day of “easy”. Christianity is often microwaveable, or worse, “fast
food”. Just hit the drive in and
get what tastes good. Many have
forgotten what it is to taste and see that the Lord is good? As a result, the direction they take in
life usually points to what is easier, what will touch the palette of their
mouths with a pleasant taste. If it is without conflict, it gets attributed to the will of God.
This is NOT how He directs your path.
Proverbs 3:5-6 teaches us to:
“Trust in the Lord with all
your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways
acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
As a pastor, this is the biggest question I field from
people. “Can you tell me what is God’s will for My life?” They do not easily hear that God’s will
for their life is that they grow in their relationship with Him to the point
that they can recognize His desire for them on a consistent basis; that they
recognize the leading of the Holy Spirit and are able to follow it.
Most people are willing to “trust” in the Lord. They will even trust a minister to be
the voice of God in telling them what they should do. They are equally willing to “lean not on their own
understanding”, though this usually happens after everything they understand
has led them to a dead end, or worse, up the proverbial tree.
Likewise, once people get to this point
in the process, they are willing to
let God "direct their path". They long for it.
Their prayer is “help me out of this
mess!”
The part that is missing is the part that seems to be the
hardest. “In ALL of your ways acknowledge Him…” People are mostly willing to acknowledge God when it suits
them, when they want a specific answer on a specific matter, or becomes
painfully obvious that all else has failed.
The word “acknowledge” is the Hebrew word “yada” ( יָדַע St. H3045 ). It means, to know, learn perceive,
discern, to recognize, confess and consider, to be instructed, to reveal and be
revealed…and the list goes on.
“Yada” – to acknowledge God – requires considering His
heart, His passion and His desires.
It means to consider how God will feel about a matter and what position He
will take as defined in His Word.
This is difficult for people, not because of the word “acknowledge” but
because of the word “ALL”. People
do not like to acknowledge God in every one of their ways, but only certain
ones, because deep down they know that if they take time to consider God’s
heart on much of what they do, it would become necessary to change their
actions.
They want God to “love them as they are” without realizing
that the greatest benefit of the love of God is that it is His desire to bring
you to “greater than you are.”
Everybody loves “greater” but not the price that comes with it.
If you want God’s best in your life, you have to be willing
to let Him lead. You have to know
that His leadership will not only point you in direction, but will also point
you AWAY from a certain direction.
Mostly, you have to know that His leading is through consultation. Holy Spirit is the helper…the advisor
or the consult. If you
consult with him only in the matter you desire, you will likely not be in the
position to act on His leading anyway because you will be out of position. You
must consult the advisor for every decision. In ALL of your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your
paths.
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