December 26 , 2004  •  Pastor Randy Smith

Verses 5 and 6 of Proverbs 3 are two of the most well-known and deeply loved verses in the Scriptures. Possibly some of you have written them in the flyleaf of your Bible or have them displayed on a wall in your house. Most of you have memorized these verses. But why do they take such a precedent in our hearts? Because, as one author rightly said, "In plain and simple language the sage lays his finger on what is of the essence of religious faith: trusting God" (Aitken, Proverbs, p. 37).

Each day our lives enter the unknown. Many of the events are shrouded in darkness and uncertainty. Moreover, important decisions need to be made. Trials occur that defy explanation. Burdens are heaped upon our backs. Events transpire that can affect our future. People, finances and health rarely go in a way we had expected or desired. Even Jesus said each day has enough troubles of its own. But did He forget to mention the troubles from yesterday and the anxieties of tomorrow? Life can be overwhelming. We know all about worry. We know all about stress. We know all about fear. We know all about hopelessness.

But did you know that God wants you to experience none of these destructive traits? As a matter of fact He calls all of them sin because they are the antithesis of what He expects from His creatures. You see, all of us as humans naturally depend on something to get us through the difficulties of life. Possibly it’s another person or alcohol or materialism or even yourself. But the advent of worry, stress, fear and hopelessness is an indication that none of these sources have brought any of us much relief. God wants it that way. He wants us to realize the futility of a life absent from Him. He wants us to forsake the idols of the world and look to Him in wholehearted trust. He wants us to depend on Him so He can give true peace and a life with purpose and direction.

Listen to the foundational words of Solomon: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight" (Pro. 3:5-6).

As I hope God’s Word blesses your heart this morning, I wish to take a look at the three commands and the one promise contained in these two memorable verses. And although many of you are familiar with this text, I encourage you to listen anew and allow the Spirit of God to really search your hearts as to whether or not you are really living by these verses. For in doing so you will honor God and receive great peace.

1. FIRST COMMAND: TRUST HIM

The first command is to trust God. Verse 5 says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart."

At the root of the Hebrew word "trust" is the idea of lying hopeless on the ground. For example, many of you are familiar with our large German shepherd, "Blitz." It’s happened on more than one occasion that smaller dogs will see him and immediately roll over and lie motionless on their backs. Their posture is not for play. It’s for submission. I believe this is what biblical trust is all about. In the same way that one animal will place itself under the mercy of another, we as humans are called to cast ourselves into the merciful arms of God. We are called to submit to His leading. We are called to realize our hopelessness and trust Him.

You ask, "To what extent should we trust God?" Verse 5 continues, we are to trust the Lord "with all (our) heart." The Hebrews used the word "heart" to speak of much more than the internal muscle that keeps the blood flowing through our body. In this context, the word "heart" refers to our inner person — our intellect, will and emotions. This is why the greatest command is to love the Lord will all of our heart (Dt. 6:5). So when God calls us to trust Him with all of our heart, He is calling for total trust with every fiber of our being. Unwavering obedience. Absolute dependence. Complete confidence in Him. As one commentator said, "(This is) a summons to the faithful to live faith-full lives" (Aitken, Proverbs, p. 38).

Listen to the testimonies of two human beings just like us who trusted God with all of their heart.

Job has surpassed all of us in the arena of suffering. His life and testimony are recorded in the biblical book that bears his name. Within a short period of time his children, his wealth and his health were all swept away. All he had was his wife whose only advice to her husband was to "curse God and die" (Job 2:9). Where was Job to turn during this time of affliction? Where could he place his confidence when everything that defined his existence was stripped away? Job turned to God. And even though he never received the "why" for his calamities, he did say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15a-NKJV).

Asa was the King of Judah. The Bible says he "did good and right in the sight of the LORD his God" (2 Chron. 14:2). Asa had just under 600,000 fighting men at his disposal. A formidable force unless one is being attacked by one million Ethiopians with 300 chariots. What was the King to do? In Second Chronicles we read, "Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, ‘LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail against You’" (2 Chron. 14:11). At a time when most military generals would be drawing up their battle plans, we find Asa on his face before the Lord in prayer. As his great relative, King David, once said, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (Psm. 20:7-NIV).

Though none of us have ever suffered like Job, I personally know many of you that have and are still experiencing excruciating trials. And though our suffering may differ in degree, none of us in this room are exempt from the pain that comes from living in a sin-cursed world. Maybe it’s that cancer that suddenly appeared at a young age or those allergies that persist without any relief. Maybe it’s your spouse that’s seeking divorce or that co-worker who hates you for no reason. Maybe it’s the inability to have children or that rebellious child who continues to pull further away from God. All of these situations are beyond our control. What’s one to do? The biblical response is clear: Trust God!

Though many of us will never face the monumental decisions of King Asa, each day every one of us needs to draw wisdom and strength from the Lord. Maybe it’s the husband who needs to choose a new profession or the wife who needs to lovingly confront a Christian sister. Maybe it’s the teen that is offered drugs or the child nervous about a school recital. Maybe it’s the fear that comes from sharing your faith or the concern as to where the next meal will be coming from. All of these situations are again beyond our control. What’s one to do? The biblical response is clear: Trust God!

The need to trust God is one of the most basic and fundamental tenants of the Christian faith. It’s so primary that without trust in God we cannot be saved! We are saved by trusting God and we persevere and succeed in the faith by continued trust in Him.

Yet trusting isn’t that easy. Trusting at times can be so difficult. Jerry Bridges in his book Trusting God hit the nail on the head when he said, "I acknowledge it often seems more difficult to trust God than to obey Him. The moral will of God given to us in the Bible is rational and reasonable. The circumstances in which we must trust God often appear irrational and inexplicable. …Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God’s revealed will. Trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries. We do not know the extent, the duration, or the frequency of the painful, adverse circumstances in which we must frequently trust God. We are always coping with the unknown" (p. 17).

But God gives us grace to trust Him. As a matter of fact, our trust should grow the longer we walk with God. Why is that? Two reasons immediately come to mind.

First of all, we learn throughout the years that God is faithful. You know when God gave new exhortations to the Israelites, often He reminded them of His faithfulness during the Exodus. He wanted the Jews to realize that He could be trusted in the present because of His faithfulness in the past. The same principle applies to our lives as well. The more we see His faithful hand shaping the events of our lives in the past, the more we realize that He can be trusted in the present. In hindsight, we can recall the situations when God either removed a trial or gave us sufficient grace to endure the trial. We can recall the good ways He has shepherded us along life’s journey. He has never disappointed us. Through experience, we learn that God keeps His Word and never fails on His promises. We learn that He is good. We learn that God can be trusted. We come to agree with John Newton who said, "If it were possible for me to alter any part of his plan, I could only spoil it" (Newton, Works, vol. 5, p. 624).

The second reason we can trust God is because of His character. The more we read the Bible, the more we will become familiar with the attributes of God. We begin to know about, moreover know, the God who is all-loving, all-wise and all-sovereign. As once author rightly concluded, "God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about" (Author Unknown). We begin to know that the God who created us and sustains us is also the God who finds no detail of our lives too insignificant for His attention and no circumstance to difficult for His control. He brings light out of darkness. He not only promises, but has the ability to cause "all things to work together for good to those who love Him" (Rom. 8:28).

Christian, it shouldn’t take long to realize that you can "(cast) all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Pet. 5:7). It shouldn’t take long to realize your need to trust God because He knows better than you do what promotes your best interests. It shouldn’t take long to realize that all the other gods and idols of the world pale in comparison to almighty Jehovah.

One pastor said, "It wasn’t Allah who loved me enough to send his only son to die for me. It wasn’t Muhammad who took his cross and stamped ‘pardon’ on my soul to save me from hell. It wasn’t Buddha or Confucius who divinely inspired the writing of an infallible, inerrant Bible. It isn’t the Rev. Moon who gives me a peace that passes all understanding. It isn’t Merrill Lynch or Charles Schwab who provides my every need. It isn’t some new age crystal that heals my diseases. It isn’t the stars that give direction and meaning to my life. It is the LORD Who has done all of this. He has proven time and time again that He can be trusted" (Rev. Adrian Dieleman, Funeral Sermon, February 12, 2003).

2. SECOND COMMAND: LEAN NOT

The second command in Proverbs 3 is found in the latter half of verse 5. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Leaning on our own understanding is obviously the natural contrast to trusting in the Lord.

We live in an age when the world has placed "self" foremost in our affections. Modern catchwords such as "self-esteem" and "self-love" dominate our vocabulary. We are taught to believe that the world revolves around "me" as William Ernest Henley made popular in his classic Invictus. "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

But on the contrary Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Lk. 9:23). The world wants self-dependence and self-reliance, yet Jesus wants self-denial. The world wants us to trust ourselves, to "lean on our own understanding." Jesus wants us to trust Him and lean not on our own understanding, but rather His.

This past week Julie and I took the girls to New York City to observe the Christmas decorations. I can still remember how much I enjoyed that myself as a young child. Everything was going well until we ran into the massive crowds gathered in Rockefeller Center. One of my daughters began to panic. She felt as if she was in a position of danger. On her own she would have been, but I told her as long as she held daddy’s hand everything was going to be OK. Her own understanding was flawed. Her own understanding could have gotten her in trouble. But as long as she trusted in her father (who was trusting in the Lord!), she would be fine.

God wants us to realize that our thinking and reason is flawed. He wants us to realize that our emotions and feelings are often contrary to His will. He wants us to realize that when we lean on our own understanding we neglect the life of faith in utter dependence on Him that He desires.

I believe this "self" movement has had greater impact on the church than the church has had on it. Combine this over indulgence on the self with the preponderance of laziness and you have just the right ingredients for a church that has leaned on its own understanding and has failed to be led by God.

Why should I pore over the Scriptures for a solution when I can trust my own experiences? Why should I depend on the Lord through prayer when I can act based upon my own dreams and visions? Why should I seek counsel from godly individuals, when I can be "led" by my feelings? We rarely want to trust the Lord; rather we often look for the quick fix that will be least detrimental to our autonomous life-style.

Other times we may make the right decision and diligently seek to honor the Lord with our lives only to find out things don’t evolve the way we expected. In these cases we too must continue to trust the Lord and lean not on our own understanding.

I can remember about 10 years ago when I thought my sister was nuts for moving to downtown Chicago. She was working in the suburbs. Why would she be so foolish to want an hour commute to work each morning? I was positive I was right in my own understanding. However, she failed to heed my advice.

Within her first year downtown she left the Catholic Church and began attending Moody Bible Church pastored by Erwin Lutzer. She got saved. Soon she began dating a member of the church. The man became her husband. I went to visit my sister at Moody and it was there that I met a young woman named Julie VanGennep who soon became Julie Smith.

But I was positive that my sister was making a tremendous mistake moving to Chicago! In hindsight, I am thankful God permitted her to make the decision against my blessings!

Folks, God works in mysterious ways. We need to trust Him because often He works in a way contrary to our own understanding. We dare not think we have Him all figured out. In the book of Isaiah He said, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:8-9).

As a Pastor, I’m frequently asked why God permits certain things to happen? Maybe you have a few of those questions on your heart right now. I always tried to have an answer, but as I grow in my faith, I find myself saying more and more, "I don’t know, you just need to trust the Lord." God is never accountable to us. He doesn’t owe us an explanation for His actions. We’re simply called to trust Him. We’re called to lean on Him. We’re called to live the life of faith. As Charles Wesley penned in Jesus Lover of My Soul, "Other refuge have I none; hangs my hopeless soul on Thee."

3. THIRD COMMAND: ACKNOWLEDGE HIM

This was Solomon’s point as we get to the third command. In the beginning of verse 6 we read, "In all your ways acknowledge Him."

Just because we are to trust the Lord in everything, it doesn’t mean that we are to not make any decisions. We dare not to lean on our own understanding, but as verse 6 declares, we are to lean on Him. We are to acknowledge Him an all our ways. God is not calling for an anti-intellectual or anti-emotional faith, what He is calling for is for our will to be submitted to His. As one author put it, "This is not to say that trusting God means we no longer are responsible for figuring out the best course of action, but that we put God’s desires at the center of our decision-making" (Koptak, Proverbs, p. 132). It’s not a "let go — let God" mentality. It’s seeking His wisdom and His will (through prayer, Bible reading and wise counsel) and then acting accordingly. It’s following the thesis of the book of Proverbs: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" (Pr. 1:7a). Even the next verse in Proverbs 3 says, "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD" (Pr. 3:7a).

We are called to acknowledge God in all of our ways. In all of our planning. In all of our thinking. In all of our dreaming. In all of our activity. In all of our spending. In all of our decisions. The small as well as the great. The personal as well as the corporate. The temporal as well as the eternal. In all of our ways we are to acknowledge Him. We are do all things, Colossians 1:18 "so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything." We are to do all things, Colossians 3:17 "in the name of the Lord Jesus." "So that in all things," 1 Peter 4:11, "God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Acknowledging God in all things is the biblical call for the Christian. Are you willing to forsake yourself and stake your life on this command?

4. PROMISE: STRAIGHT PATHS

Finally, are there any benefits for trusting God, not relying on your own understanding and acknowledging Him in all your ways? Christian, I hope from faith and experience you can answer the question. But if you have any doubts, verse 6 concludes with a promise. It says that the result of following the previous three commands is that "He will make your paths straight."

You see, when we cast ourselves into the loving arms of God, He directs us down the best road possible. Even when the road is bumpy with unexpected turns, we can "walk by faith (and) not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7) knowing that God is in the driver’s seat. He is in control and His plans for us are perfect.

I think of Paul and Silas who were beaten with rods and fastened to the stocks (Ac. 16:23-24) for their missionary endeavors. They were persecuted for doing God’s will. They were detained when God called them to share Christ with the world. How would they respond? They trusted God. The Scriptures say that evening they "were praying and singing hymns of praise to God" (Ac. 16:25).

Only when we believe God will make our paths straight, despair gives way to joy, worry gives way to faith, anger gives way to love, gloom gives way to hope and suffering gives way to abundant life.

That great man of faith, George Muller, once said, "Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man’s power ends."

Last week I listened to the testimony of Scott and Janet Willis. Scott is a pastor from the Chicago area and they were returning home on I-94 from Milwaukee after celebrating a family birthday party. The car in front of them swerved at the last minute to avoid a large piece of metal in the road, but Scott was unable to move his van in time. The metal punctured the gas tank and within seconds the entire car was engulfed in flames. Scott and Janet managed to fall out of the front seats, but their children were not as fortunate. All six of their lives were taken in the fiery inferno. They said within 30 seconds they realized what had happened. Scott looked at his wife and said, "They’re with the Lord, God has prepared us for this."

For the past 10 years Scott and Janet have traveled the world sharing about God’s love and faithfulness. Only God knows how many have come to Christ because of their testimony and how many Christians have been strengthened to trust God in ways they never thought possible because of their trial.

They said right after the accident the Lord brought Psalm 34:1-4 to their minds. "I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the LORD; the humble will hear it and rejoice. O magnify the LORD with me, And let us exalt His name together. I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears."

How would you respond if this situation happened to you? Would you be angry with God? That surely isn’t trusting Him. Would you expect Him to provide an explanation? That’s not trusting Him either. Would you waiver in your faith? Strike three. Scott and Janet realized their need to trust God with all their heart all the time. For He is a God who makes no mistakes. He is a God who is always with us. He is a God always worthy of our praise. He is able to make straight paths for those who trust Him, acknowledge Him and lean not on their own understanding.