Sometimes God is waiting on us to act. Trusting God comes first.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart…”

All my heart?

Every bit of my heart?

The scary places?
The parts of me I don’t let others see?
The parts of me I stay so busy so that even I don’t have to see?
My insecurities?
My fears?
My finances?
My relationships?
My decisions?
My future?
My past?… Trust Him that good could actually come from my past?

It’s a tall order to trust the Lord with all our heart.

“and lean not on your own understanding;”

If I’m honest with myself and with you, and most certainly with God, I don’t have it all figured out anyway. Oh but I try. At a very young age, I was raised with a very independent spirit…

A problem-solver.
A do-er.
A go-getter.
An achiever.
A helper.

Try, try, try again until you figure it out.

There was one problem with that.

It wasn’t Biblical. It left no room for “lean not on your own understanding.”

In the last several years, it’s been a little bit like God has had to break the wild stallion. But not out of anger, but rather out of love.

Leaning on our own understanding is a very lonely, isolating, exhausting, and fearful place to be. What if we’re wrong? And frequently I was.

The Bible says, “my people perish for lack of knowledge.” My soul was perishing because what I really needed was to relinquish the pressure of relying on my own knowledge and trust Him.

Trusting God brings freedom.

Relying not on my own understanding means trusting Him.

“in all your ways submit to him,”

All my ways?

It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? All.

God never tolerates half-way. He never settles for half-hearted.

He always asks us to give all. Be all. Do all for Him.

I don’t even need Him to search my heart…I know the answer to the unasked question…there have been areas that I’ve left unsubmitted wholly to Him.

Why? Fear. Rebellion. Blindness. Doubt.

But until I’m willing to recognize it, I will stay stuck right where I am, and we will continue going around and around this same lesson, just as the Israelites did while waiting to enter the Promised land.

Until I’m willing to submit to Him in all my ways.

“and he will make your paths straight.”

How many times do I circle around or traverse the crooked path because of my own hesitant obedience or lack of trust?

In my journey to more intentionally trust the Lord, what I have realized, and He confirmed again in this verse, is that God often requires something from us before He acts.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

I’ve had to learn to trust first, submit to Him and His ways, and then He shows me which way to go. Trusting God comes first.

What do you need to trust God for today?

 

 

(If you have a question you’d like Dr. B to answer, contact her here now. Your name and identity will be kept confidential.)

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Have you ever felt like you were stuck? Going around and around the same lesson time after time? It’s often because of our own hesitant obedience or lack of trust. In Proverbs 3:5-6, God tells us to trust Him. How do we effectively trust God with all of our heart? #Bible #TrustGod #faith

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