lean not!

“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.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 are two verses I have know for as long as I can remember. I’ve come across them frequently in Christian books over the years and quoted them myself often enough but somehow I never fully comprehended at least a portion of their’ meaning until lately. The phrase “lean not on your own understanding” is what I have suddenly been brought face to face with. …“lean not”… Really?? That means when God tells me to trust in Him with all my heart there are going to be times that trust goes against my own comprehension, interpretation, and knowledge? Wait! You mean God might want me to trust Him when He tells me to reach out to someone in love even when I “know” they are just going to respond with hate? You mean God might lead me to trust Him and go ahead and take that job with lower pay even though that is an “unwise” financial decision because that is where He wants me? You mean the way in which God calls me to prepare for my future might look silly or even dumb to every one else and even to me sometimes but if that is what He wants I am suppose to trust Him and do it anyway? Wow! But really isn’t that what we see in the Bible? Think about Gideon in Judges 6 and 7. It is an amazing story, I wish time a space permitted me to retell all of it here, but I encourage you to read it for yourself if you have not lately! God carved down Gideon’s army to a tiny 300 men and then lead them in victory against the host of Midianites with trumpets, pitchers and lamps as their weapons. Think of how many times Gideon had to not lean on his own understanding as God told him to send more and more of his men home and then instructed him to arm his warriors with such seemingly useless weapons. Would you have had the faith to obey? Would I? Then there is Joshua whom God told him to march around the city of Jericho and the walls would fall flat. What if he had said “oh come on, that’s impossible! and besides we would look incredibly silly!” O.K maybe he would not have used that exact vocabulary … but how many of us say that in our hearts when faced with some of God’s commandments? The Bible is full of people who had to trust God despite the fact that the circumstances made that trust look crazy and even dangerous and I can‘t think of one time God failed!

So let’s think about this in reference to our own lives. It doesn’t have to look great to our own understanding or to everyone else we just need to acknowledge God and He will direct us. Isn’t that freeing? Will you join me today in asking the Lord to show us the areas where we are leaning on the wrong thing? Ask Him to help you to trust in Him instead. After all isn’t it better having the all powerful all knowing God directing our paths…rather than trying to do it all by ourselves?