Trusting in the Lord

Proverbs 3 is one of those sections of scripture that is good to keep coming back to. As we read this Proverb it has the effect to help remind us and ground us in the Lord.

Prov 3:5-6

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

To trust the Lord is vital, and without our dependence on Him we have nothing, and we are going nowhere fast.

In the OT (Hebrew) this word trust means to take refuge in, to put your confidence in, to be sure.

In the NT (Greek) this word means to have faith in, to believe, to trust.

Trusting in the Lord is active; it is something that we do. We rely on Him, we depend on Him, we put our hope in Him, we trust in Him. Simply put, as we trust in Him, we don’t have to depend on ourselves; rather we are depending on Him. The consequences of not trusting the Lord, not depending on Him, is that we get into trouble and sin. However, when we trust in Him, when we rely on Him, we are kept safe and life is so much better. Most times when we struggle with sin it is because we are trying to depend on ourselves and not on Jesus and the personal relationship we have with Him.

Prov 3:5 & 6 speaks right to this issue. It plainly says; trust in Him – not in yourself. It goes on to tell us to acknowledge Him, and this means to gain knowledge of Him, to know Him, especially as we look to Him (as we see).

As we look to the Lord and get to know Him better, we are able to see what He is about and we can simply follow Him. As we acknowledge Him (look to the Lord), the promise is that He will direct our paths – He will lay thinks out for us. This is pretty straight forward and simple; look to God, follow Him, and you will go the right way.

This same teaching came from Jesus. This is how He lived His life on the earth, He trusted in and depended on the Father and He looked to Him to follow Him and make sure He was on the right path.

John 5:19

Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

Let’s thank God for the clarity and simplicity of the Word, and let us continue to look to Jesus, follow Jesus, and keep on the path that He has set before us.

One more nugget from Proverbs 3

Prov 3:13

Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
And the man who gains understanding

It’s pretty easy to see that wisdom in the Proverbs is speaking of Jesus. We are instructed to seek wisdom, not our own ways and not the ways of those that would want to seduce us and lead us into sin.

A simple definition of sin is not trusting in Jesus, not depending on the Lord. If we hold fast our relationship with the Lord and walk through life depending on and trusting in Him – things go a lot better.

Prov 3:18 tells us one of the benefits of wisdom.

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy are all who retain her.

Wow – wisdom is a tree of life.

In the beginning the Lord provided the tree of life for Adam and Eve, but as they got their eyes off of Him, and started relying on their own understanding as they were being tempted they fell into sin. The same happens to us every time when we look to our own reasoning and follow the voice of temptation.

Let us trust in Him, let us follow closely; and as we do He will lay out the path for us and we will find a tree of life.

God bless you all.