"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. " Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
We have all heard Proverbs 3:5-6 at some point. But I want to hopefully shed some new light on this passage. I want to focus on the word understanding. What is understanding? How does the man who wrote Proverbs define it? Well later on in Proverbs Solomon states :
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." Proverbs 9:10
The knowledge of the holy is understanding. That seems not to make sense at all. What is "the holy". I did a word study into the Hebrew language on the word holy used here. It seems to be a reference to the quote "Be holy as I am holy" from earlier in the Bible. It as if Solomon is saying that understanding is the knowledge of what God wants. God would say that quote after giving out the list of laws as sort of a closing remark, saying "this is what I want you to do." So the connection I make is this, understanding is the knowledge of what God wants us to do.
When Solomon says don't lean on your own understanding, he is just saying don't tell God what you think He wants for you, let HIM TELL YOU WHAT HE WANTS for you. After all "if you want God to laugh, just tell Him your plans." When you are actively living the first statement Solomon makes, trust in God, than it won't be hard at all to let Him tell you what His plans are.
When you put God first in all things; you acknowledge His power and presence and He will direct your paths.
You still need to strive for understanding as Solomon describes it, but also realize you are limited and God is not. Trust Him over what you think you know.
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ReplyDeleteHey Mike - this is good. Something interesting I'll add also though. A lot of times the question: ‘what will I do with my life?’ seems like a daunting one. Sometimes I think we get frustrated because we expect God to just tell us word for word what to do. However, I just read something Oswald Chambers states. He says that God doesn't tell us exactly what to do with our lives, and He doesn't always tell us exactly what His plan is, but we are led by Him as He REVEALS Himself to us. By having a heart that is receptive to God's revelation in our everyday lives, even in small things, we will learn things about Him that then point us in the direction of who He wants us to be. A process we may be unaware of at the time! Which is scary, because we can't see the end result, but it is trusting Him to take us to the next step, and the next step, even if we may not have a clear cut answer of how exactly we will be used for His Kingdom. Comforting thought eh? God takes more pleasure in us coming and seeking to learn about Him, gaining wisdom in a growing process, much more than He would by just faxing us a play-by-play of how life will go down and then sending us on our way. Sometimes we place too much emphasis on having it all figured out in our heads, and thinking we know exactly what God wants of us, when really God is saying "Relax, I know what I'm doing, it's not important that I give you all the details. Just know more of who I am". And when we do, we’ll have discernment for each step as it comes!
ReplyDelete(Sorry for length, got a little into it.)