The journey of trusting the Lord.

One of the most quoted verses from the book of Proverbs is "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."  Proverbs 3:5-6  There have been many times that I have either said or heard "just trust the Lord."  Depending on the immediate context this is the best advice I need to hear often because that is the walk of faith in God.  Our journey of trusting the Lord will have ups and down depending on our present circumstances.  Let's take a look at Proverbs 3:5-6 to help us to know what it means to trust the Lord.  First, I must trust the Lord with all my heart.  Half-hearted trust is actually not trusting the Lord at all.  Often we say we are trusting the Lord but our actions are speaking differently.  To be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ I must be all in and if I am not all in then I open the doors to drifting and compromise in my faith.  The idea of trusting the Lord with all hearts has been misunderstood by some so the second part of this verse leads to the second aspect of what it means to trust the Lord,  Second, I must not lean upon my own abilities of wisdom and understanding.  This thought comes from the spiritual principle that God does not need my help to guide me but He does need my cooperation.  My understanding is what often causes me my problems, not developing my solutions.  This is one of the hardest things for man to accomplish because in our arrogance we often actually think we know exactly what we ought to do.  It is then that we try to convince God we know best and when we do that we are not really trusting the Lord.  The third area helps us to put the first two in proper perspective which is in all our ways we must acknowledge Him.  Basically this is saying  that I must be willing to do life God's way in everything.  This is only accomplished when I repent of doing life my way and begin to acknowledge I was wrong and God is right, I will do life His way.  Let's take an example to explain this point.  God has a lot to say concerning our finances.  Americans in general have develop certain concepts and practices in the use of their finances.  As a Christian I am now under the Lordship of Christ which means now I must follow biblical principles of handling my money and not the American way.  This will often confuse some Christians but if I want to trust the Lord I must be willing to handle my life according to biblical principles which includes our finances.  This acknowledge God in all our ways has no exception clause.  Please do not convince yourself that God understand your personal situation therefore He is going to exempt you on one of His spiritual principles.  How fickle do you think God is because if He would do that for you then He would be compelled to do that for other and in the end all you would have is a religion made up of rules of man trying to sound like the rules of God.  Therefore when I say I trust You, Jesus, I am saying I will submit to Your principles, to Your way of doing life and I am going to cooperate with You Lord so that my steps are guided by Your hand for I believe You are my Savior and Lord who has my best interest in mind.
May we learn to trust Him more and more along our journey of faith in Jesus Christ.

Pastor John