Proverbs 3:5 (NKJV)
“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.”
Have you ever said “Well, I just have to trust The Lord”? I’ve said it many times lately… but I wonder about that statement. I mean… do we HAVE to trust The Lord? Has it come to that? I had everything covered up until now, but now this is big. This is more than I can figure out – more than I can handle. So now I guess I just have to trust the Lord. Tongue-in-cheek or true?
I love this verse. It takes the pressure off. We don’t have to figure everything out. We just have to trust Him completely. Sometimes it takes hard places to remind us of that, but in the end, if we are followers of Christ, every aspect of our lives is directed by The Lord. He knows the path we take because He directs us to those places as we trust Him.
The NIV® translation of this verse says we should “submit to Him” and “He will make your paths straight”. So that moment when we freak out because we don’t know what to do. Our blood pressure spikes and our heads start spinning. Our submission to Him calms that fleshly pushback against what is happening and reminds us to trust. As we submit to whatever He is doing, He directs us straight through whatever it is. Even if it looks uneven, jumbled, curvy, huge and precarious… as we trust, He takes us straight through.
I hope you’re not in hard times, but if you are – trust Him, submit to Him and rest. He already knows the path out before he ever puts us at the trailhead. Trust Him in everything. He knows what He is doing and He probably has something for us, directly from His hand, that we would never learn, know, or experience if we didn’t walk this road. Look for Him. Trust Him…. He has this. Thank God He does…. we just have to trust.