Proverbs 3:5-8 Monday Day #16

Moments in Proverbs
Proverbs 3:5-6
Day #16

We finished our last week ending with learning that God favors those who choose to live in the principles of His wisdom.  It doesn't mean God love others less, because He love the whole world - believers and unbelievers alike and wants everyone to walk in His ways.  He does, however, favor those who choose to live by His principles.  God holds them in high esteem both before mankind, and in His sight because they have chosen to follow after the ways of the Lord, which then these ways become like a blessing from God. 

As we go into the next verse, which is one that many of us have put to memory.  This verse tells us how to live in the principles of wisdom.

Trust in the Lord

Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

King Solomon is advising his son to live a life of trust in God - the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  In the same way that King Solomon and his son had a covenant with God, we, as New Covenant believers also have a covenant with God as well.   Our covenant is secure through God's Son, Jesus Christ, because of His promises of redemption from our sins by the shed blood of Jesus.  In that, we too can take the promises of Proverbs 3:5-6 into our lives as well.

Most believers are familiar with this Scripture passage, but I wonder if everyone truly understands the beauty of this verse in what "trust" really means.  Researching the root meaning of the word "trust" in Hebrew is to be confident or sure of something.  God wants our faith to be built up so strong in Him to where we are confident and sure of the the promises He has given His people through His writings throughout Scripture.  

When Solomon advised his son to trust in the Lord with all his heart, it didn't mean half of his trust in God and the other half in self, someone or something else.  It means purposing to allow our spirit to be in control - meaning we are allowing the Holy Spirit, who resides in our spirit, to rule over our whole being - spirit, soul, and body.  Within our soul, where our mind will and emotions lie, means releasing our whole soul over to our spirit where we allow the Holy Spirit to rule our lives, and then trusting that our mind, will, and emotions are fully in the hands of the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within our spirit.  Then our soul, as has been taught in earlier teachings tells our body that our spirit (Holy Spirit) is in control of our life.  It will take a child-like faith in that we are fully trusting in the Lord with our whole heart.

• Put another way - when we fully trust in God alone with all our whole heart, it means we decide to put aside our own understanding by "choosing" to trust God and His understanding explicity, as He has declared in His Word.  We believe He knows and does what is best for us. 

In All Your Ways

⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

When we acknowledge God in all our ways, that means we have invited Him into our everyday life and conduct.  From the smallest details to the monumental events of our lives, we have invited God to be the center of every activity we are involved in day in and day out. 

I'm reminded of a book I read many decades ago about a monk named Brother Lawrence who purposed to practice the presence of the Lord in everything he did.  One of his mundane tasks was to daily peel potatoes.  Even in that most mundane task, he purposed to practice the presence of Christ with every swipe of the blade peeling each potatoes.  What that did was make him consciously aware of God's presence, which drew him closer to the Lord in a very intimate way in everything he did.

In a previous episode in our study in Proverbs, we talked about the ruts, or grooves, in our lives that lay out the path of our life in front of us.  They can be good or bad ruts.  We learned that the more we renew our minds to the will of God by gaining His knowledge, trusting in the Holy Spirit to give us revelation and understanding, the more we will walk in the wisdom of God.  As such, we form the ruts of the paths that is laid out before us by the life we have lived.  Those ruts get deeper and surprisingly easier to travel in because it becomes more difficult to sway out of those ruts.  Those ruts are not bumpy like the ruts of someone who chooses to run his or her own life without God, but smooth where as we travel in those ruts, it becomes an easy travel.   As we keep surrendering our hearts to the will of God, God keeps us following in His ruts of the path of righteousness. We become comfortable in those good ruts that is laid out before us because they are God's ruts, and we faithfully trust that He is directing our path before us.  Not only are we happy and content following in this path set, God is please with how we are traveling.

7.  Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil.  8  It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

Most believers have already traveled the road that has bumpy ruts before they accepted the Lord, already knowing that living life in our own strength only brings on disaster in our lives.  But why is it that from time to time we still go back to relying on our own mind, will, and emotions, thinking we know what is best.  Without realizing it, we have swayed off the path that God has laid out before us and life gets bumpy again.  It doesn't take long before we realize that only God knows sees what is ahead of us, and He knows best.  Then we need to repent and purposefully get back into the ruts that God has laid out for us, fully trusting Him in all our ways.

King Solomon was warning his son, and it is also God's warning to us to not forget that God knows what is best for us, so it is important to stay away from evil, which surrounds all of us every day.  God's ways are always best for us - spirit, soul, and body.  Chances are, we will live longer, because we are in God's hands, and we trust and know that He is taking care of us.  

That is living in God's wisdom!

Tomorrow we will continue on with chapter 3, starting in verse 7.

God bless!

Pastor Joyce Erickson
Believersbibleschool.com