Reflection
Trust in the Lord (Proverbs 3: 5-6
REFLECTIONS (Bible Study)
There’s a bonus in writing for this webpage: no-one tells you what to write about; you can choose your own passage from the Bible.
One of my favourite readings in the Old Testament goes back a long way in my life to when I was a teenager. To mark my immersion baptism, I was given a new Bible. Inside was stuck a piece of paper with my name, the date and these two verses from the book of Proverbs:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3: 5-6)
I have that Bible – and its insert – to this day, nearly sixty years later.
What good advice! ‘Trust in the Lord’. When you are young, those words probably refer to an initial commitment to follow the way of Jesus. As you go through life, of course that commitment should remain the same, but it tends to extend beyond what we might call ‘the religious’. All sorts of situations confront us, relating to family, work, where to live, relationships, church and so on. Sometimes the courses of action to be followed seem obvious – and therein lies the danger. We are warned ‘lean not to your own understanding’ or, as a later translation of the Bible has it “Do not rely on your own insight”. It is not difficult to think that we’ve got the answers. We are intelligent, rational beings; we can think things through for ourselves. As the modern thinking has it ‘You can be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want to do’. It’s not true and it doesn’t always work. We are called upon to trust God – and to do that, we have first to seek His will. Not ‘I’ve made this decision – please bless it’, but “Lord, I have this decision to make; I understand at least some of its implications; I think I may know the right things to do, but …… please help and guide me.”
Did you spot that ? It was a prayer.
And don’t forget that God always answers our prayers. This is often repeated but it’s not a cliché: God always answers our prayers. Sometimes it is a question of waiting on Him, waiting for Him before going ahead. He will make it clear: it could be a ‘Yes!’ You’ve thought it out right, so get on with it. Sometimes, and this is the difficult one, the answer from God is clearly negative. So here is another non-cliché: When God closes one door, He opens another.
IF WE TAKE THE ‘TROUBLE’ TO ASK HIM.
Now verse 6. “In all your ways”. The idea seems fairly obvious, doesn’t it ? We are not meant to pick and choose. You know the sort of thing “I’ll ask God about which Church I should go to” but I know what car I want! Is there a difference ?
The writer of Proverbs says “ALL your ways” – everything should be referred to God if we want to live lives in close fellowship with Him, doing His will and being
His witnesses.
And the result of this? He WILL direct your path. Surely, nothing could be better than that!
Now before anyone asks “Has that worked for you?”, I will admit that I have not always taken route one – the prayer route. But when I have, I think I can say that God’s promise has worked for me.
So if you have decisions to make about any aspect of your life, may I recommend that you read these two verses in Proverbs, take them to heart and put them into practise. It doesn’t matter how old or young or just-in-between you are,
As the old hymn puts it “Take it to the Lord in prayer”.
DAVID HAWKEN (29.06.2022)