Know Him

 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path."
Proverbs 3:5‭-‬6

I was thinking about this powerful Proverb verse last night as I was "trying" to go to sleep. I fail the clear direction often. So I thought, for myself, it might be interesting to break it down, study it and meditate on it.

Trust in the Lord....

Trust - firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
Firm believe - absolute certainty or conviction that something is the case.
Conviction - a firmly held belief or opinion.

With absolute certainty I am convicted that the Lord is reliable, truthful and strong

With ALL your heart.....

All - entirely consumed

With absolute certainty I am convicted that the Lord is reliable, truthful and strong. My heart is entirely consumed by these truths.

Lean not on your own understanding.....

Lean - deviate or bend

With absolute certainty I am convicted that the Lord is reliable, truthful and strong. My heart is entirely consumed by these truths. I will not deviate or bend from your truths.

In ALL your ways acknowledge him.....

All - entirely consumed

Acknowledge - to recognize the rights, authority, or status of

With absolute certainty I am convicted that the Lord is reliable, truthful and strong. My heart is entirely consumed by these truths. I will not deviate or bend from theses truths. I will be entirely consumed with recognizing the rights, authority and status of the Lord.

And he WILL direct my path...

Will - expressing inevitable events

Direct - by a straight route or without breaking a journey; control the operations of; manage or govern.

Path - a way of life, conduct, or thought

With absolute certainty I am convicted that the Lord is reliable, truthful and strong. My heart is entirely consumed by these truths. I will not deviate or bend from these truths. I will be entirely consumed with recognizing the rights, authority and status of the Lord. And the Lord will inevitably, without breaking my journey, govern my way of life, my conduct and thoughts.

Wow! Okay! In other words, GOD KNOWS and I don't!!

I don't need to rewrite scripture to understand this passage. Just neat to study it. It's really clear what I am to do. It's also clear how often I deviate and try to lean on my own understanding. Rarely, if ever, do circumstances work in my favor when I try to manipulate them.

Sometimes I'm just NOT going to understand what God is doing. Actually, most of the time I don't get it. Interesting thought....sometimes the whole point of a trial is to see if I simply trust him. Simply trust him in the waiting. Simply trust that whatever he uses will grow me more and more into his likeness.

For example, my health scare last summer....I felt incredibly scared but also was strongly convicted that the Lord was saying, "Trust ME". He was continually whispering, "Be still and KNOW ME." I spent a great deal of time alone, pouring in his Word and in prayer. I told only the people that absolutely needed to know. I've never done that before. The more people I could amass that would sympathize with me and distract me, the better. This time was different. Very different. Though I was still fearful I had a strong conviction that God was testing my obedience to trust him. To not go down my usual path of leaning on my own understanding...which always leads me down paths of extreme thinking.

Sometimes the "lesson" is in the obedience response.

Trust - a strong belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone....that someone is Jesus Christ. He IS reliable! I know it to be true! I know he IS my strength.

2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

HIS power is made PERFECT in MY weaknesses. Leaning on my own understanding IS one of many weaknesses but I must not beat myself up but instead recognize that my weaknesses actually help me to grow in my relationship with my Savior. Denying that I have them just makes the journey more painful.

Can I just say I LOVE the Word of God! Timothy was absolutely right on the money when he said,

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

If you don't know the Savior and the power of the Holy Spirit.....it's hard to grasp and it's hard to explain but this I know for sure YOU SHOULD WANT TO KNOW HIM!! You'll never be sorry even for a moment. I'm grateful everyday...even the hard days that this world isn't all there is. To live and then die....no eternity...no reunion with my beloved....I simply could not bear it. Thanks be to God I don't even have to think about it.