Trust me

I was reading a very familiar proverb today when something occurred to me that I never noticed before. It comes from Proverbs 3:5-6 in the Old Testament of the Bible. It says this:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."

You see, I've always pictured trust as being one of things we do when, based upon the facts at hand, we make an intellectual decision to go along with the situation at hand. We decide to trust, and in doing so, we trust with our heads. But today I noticed something different. This particular verse says to trust "with all [our] heart." Our hearts are the center of our will. It's the place where we sit on the throne. It's definitely an area of decision making, but it's not an intellectual decision per se. It's a decision to place our will in submission to someone or something else. We "trust" when we submit our will. Solomon (the writer of Proverbs) places this trust in direct contrast to "our own understanding." He knows that all too often we want to fall back on our own wisdom, our own experience, our own understanding. Trust is difficult. Trust is required when we don't have all the answers, when things don't make sense, or when things are outside of our control.

The other thing I find interesting here is this: Solomon is said to be the wisest man who ever lived. And yet Solomon is saying that we shouldn't lean on our own understanding. If anyone could have done some leaning on their own wisdom you would think it would be Solomon. Which basically tells me, I'm in trouble if I think I can do life on my own.

I love the promise here that if we trust God, and acknowledge Him in all our ways, he will make our paths straight. He'll clear the road. He'll take care of us. I've experienced that so many times. The times of biggest stress in my life are when I look around and realize that I'm depending on myself instead of Him.

How about you? What do you think of trust coming from the heart? What do you think that looks like?

Posted in: Durham,faith,God,Proverbs,Solomon,Story Church,Trust,wisdom