Pondering the Proverbs: Trusting God

Welcome to a whole new series of devotions dedicated to the Proverbs! This week we feature my favorite proverb: Proverbs 3:5-6. So Let's get started!

Pondering the Proverbs: Trusting God

The Proverb of the Week
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

The Meditation
Four Steps to Inner Peace

There’s a trend in modern culture. Ever since the 12 Step Program came out for recovering alcoholics, “steps” have been used to help people do just about everything. Everything from gaining serenity to becoming a healthier, happier you. It seems anything can be broken up nowadays into two or more steps, making it more accessible and easier to do.

I'm not a fan of step programs. I think they make things too easy. And I’d like to say that the Bible abhors Step Programs too. But then I’d be lying. At least as far as proverbs is concerned. For in the book of Proverbs, nestled within my favorite two verses in that book, we have what could only be called the Four Steps to Inner Peace with God.

The Four Steps to Inner Peace starts out like this:
Step 1: Trust in the Lord with all your heart This step might seem simple enough, until we tackle the meaning of trust. According to the dictionary, trust is, among other things, "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence."(See dictionary definition here). Trust is something we might hear at the pool. “Trust me! The water is fine.” Or at a retreat: “Let’s all do a trust walk together.” Or at home with your spouse: “Don’t you trust me?”
Trust is about heart and action and what we do together. It’s not a head thing, but a heart thing. It’s not about what you THINK about God, the universe, or anything, but how you organize your life based on those beliefs. Trust is an active word and not a passive one. It’s shown in the HOW we live our life and the WHO we serve. It’s about risk and hope. It’s a powerless word. It calls us to rest and rely upon the good nature of the other rather than take matters into our own hands. It’s a letting go word. For as we let go into God’s hands, we find ourselves walking down the straight path He has set before us. Trust is what following God is really all about.

Step 2: Lean not on your own understanding.
There is a wise saying that says: “The more I know, the more I realize I don’t understand.” This is true in everything, especially in life and especially with God.
Leaning not on your own understanding means confessing that you don’t understand. You don’t understand what happens or why it happens. You don’t understand why some people are born to poverty and others to wealth and prosperity. You don’t understand the laws of the universe, the workings of atoms and particles. You don’t understand how life began and how it got the way it did. You don’t understand!
This week the physicist Stephen Hawkins said that God isn’t necessary for the universe to exist. That through the laws of gravity and quantum physics, the universe will keep destroying and recreating itself forever.
Stephen Hawkin may have a handle on physics, but he’s off on his understanding. For there are things in heaven and on earth that aren’t even drempt of in Stephen Hawkin’s physics! We cannot lean on our own understanding because we never, ever, ever understand it all! That is true in science...and in life! For who can understand the impact we have on the world around us. People are touched and changed by our actions...and we will never know. So we mustn't rely on our own understanding, but merely trust.

Step 3: In all your ways acknowledge Him
It’s fair to say that acknowledging God in our life goes up and down depending on our life circumstances. When times are hard, when loved ones die, jobs disappear, and we struggle with life, acknowledging God is easy because we need Him. During these times we attend church more, we sing and pray and worship, even at home. We hunger for some comfort and peace and a Word that will help us make sense of it all. When our children are young and we need help raising them and teaching them the faith, then we need God more and the church becomes prominent in our life. When we need confirmation, a wedding, baptism, or any of the other graces the church offers, then we’re found in the pews, hungry for grace.
But in good times, when you’re working, your family is healthy, vacations are drawing near, high school is here and the kids are all confirmed. When everything is on track, we have little thought for God or for the community of God that exists to support us. This is typical. We need only look at summer worship attendance or count the young people in church to confirm this. In good times, acknowledging God takes a back seat then to enjoying life. We seldom pray or worship. Our thoughts are full of ourselves. Not so much of God.
Step three calls us back to God, even in the best times of our lives. To see and acknowledge that the good times AND the bad times are both from God. It calls us to worship God with as much gusto on June 1st as we do on December 25th. All our ways are from the Lord and He should be praised each and every step of the way.

Step 4: GOD’S STEP! : And He will make your paths straight. The final step is God’s step and here’s how it works. Proverbs says, when we’ve given up everything and our trust is in God. When we’ve set aside our own understanding and our own God acts. Only God doesn’t come through with life-changing, universe-shattering things. Instead God simply makes our paths straight.
We might not even notice. Concentrating on trusting God with our whole heart, leaning not on our own understanding, and acknowledging Him in all our ways, we might not notice that the road beneath our feet has grown straight. But it has. We walk the "straight and narrow way" as they say, not by our own doing, but by God's grace. God who makes that road straight. God who provides a safe passage through things we are completely unaware of. God who calls us to step out of ourselves, look beside us, and see who has walked there the whole time. Christ Jesus, our Lord, has leveled hills, brought valleys high, and provided for a straight way to walk. Come, let us walk together, trusting in His Goodness. Amen.

Questions to Answer
1) Where in these four steps do you need the most work on? Where do you stumble on your way to God’s peace?

2) How does God meet you in the midst of these steps, to strengthen and keep you despite your progress or lack thereof?

3) Is there grace in this passage from Proverbs? Is there life? Or is this law? An “if/then” statement? Do you find Christ hidden in this passage from Proverbs?

4) Do you agree with the Teacher here? Or disagree? Why?

End with Prayer
Almighty God, you call us to trust you fully, with everything that we have and all that we are. Give us the grace that we might indeed put our trust in you, that confident in your promises, we may walk the straight and narrow way you have set before us, through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.