YouTube video sermon
Proverbs 3:5-8
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Proverbs 3. “In God We Trust”. Words that grace our American currency. They were adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1956, supplanting E pluribus unum, which had been in use since 1776. In fact, those words constitute the official motto of our country. Did you know that? It’s clear that the majority of the people in our nation today don’t know it either. And if they do, they certainly aren’t demonstrating it.
The church is struggling with this idea too. Of course, I’m not referring to you and me – just all of those other Christians and churchgoers. You and me, we’re rock solid. Right? Or are we?
We wonder if God really hears our prayers. In the morning, we sleep in rather than read His Word. Suffering tempts us to become suspicious of His governance. Unanswered prayer makes us unsure of His care. Chronic pain makes us skeptical whether He really is with us in time of need.
And this distrust comes upon us subtly, rarely introducing itself properly. We start to sleep in a little more, pray a little less, and schedule fewer times of fellowship with believers. We get lost in our schedules and scroll through our lives in order to quiet that still, small voice that beckons, “Come back to me.” We know we’ve strayed. We know, ultimately, that God has done nothing to merit distrust. We sing, “Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, Oh, for grace to trust you more.”
But what are we trusting? And more importantly, WHO are we trusting? For those of you that grew up in church, today’s verses are probably among a few that you memorized as a child in Vacation Bible School or Sunday School or some other form of church catechesis.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “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” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NASB). And today, in order to round out the pericope (that’s a seminary word that refers to a group of verses that form a unit) we’re going to also include verses 7-8, “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones” (ESV).
There are really two simple parts to this passage – our part and God’s part. Our part is trusting. God’s part is guiding. And today, I want us to see what trusting God looks like, because clearly we’ve forgotten. When you and I trust God…
We Are Confident In God’s Care
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart” (Proverbs 3:5a).
The word “trust” in Hebrew is bawtach. And normally you would expect me to give you the more precise and technical meaning of the original language (be it Greek or Hebrew), but guess what? That is the precise meaning of the Hebrew (“to trust”). Now, I will tell you that this idea of “trust” is pictured for us, is illustrated for us, is described for us in Psalm 22:9 as a baby resting peacefully in the mother’s embrace. It’s also illustrated for us in Jeremiah 12:5 as a place so comforting that a person goes to sleep.
Think about it this way. Every night when you go to bed, you lie down on your mattress, stretch out, put your full weight down on your bed and you never give a second thought to what you just did. You don’t put one foot on the floor and gingerly hold on to the frame and ease into bed; you just lie down. That same experience, that same feeling, that same trust that you have for something as simple as your bed is what you ought to have with God. I’m putting my full weight on God. I’m resting completely in God. I’m releasing all my tensions – physically and mentally – and just stretching out on God.
Also notice that it’s not enough to simply trust God; we’re told to trust God with “all your heart.” We’ve got to put our whole heart into trusting God. Someone once said that “a half-hearted trust is the same as a whole-hearted doubt.” There’s no such thing as half-hearted trust. You either trust God or you don’t.
We all know that marriage is more than the emotion of love and just loving someone. Part of the “more” is trust. If a marriage is going to hold together we have to love (yes), we have to communicate (yes), and we have to trust. If a husband or wife doesn’t totally trust their spouse, then the marriage is in for some rough sailing
I read a story one time about Adam and Eve. You remember them. They got along fine, except Eve began to get suspicious about Adam, because sometimes he would be out late at night and she would ask him where he had been.
She said, “Adam, I don’t feel good about your being out so late when I don’t know where you’re going. Are you going out with other women?”
Adam said, “Eve, are you crazy? There aren’t any other women in the world for me to go out with. You’re the only one God made for me.”
Well, she wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but they went to sleep anyway. Then, in the middle of the night, Adam woke up to find Eve poking him in the chest. He said, “Eve, what are you doing?”
She said, “I am counting your ribs!”
There’s a reason why God demands total trust, and that’s because He deserves nothing less. Think about this. God’s character makes it impossible for Him to fool us, because He cannot lie. His wisdom makes it impossible for Him to fail us, because He cannot make a mistake. Therefore, trust God totally.
In the second line of verse 5 we’re told, “and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5b).
The word there for “lean” is the Hebrew word shaan, which literally means “to support yourself by leaning on something or someone.” In other words, we shouldn’t be guided just by what we think or what we feel we ought to do. But also notice that this verse doesn’t say that we’re without understanding. It doesn’t mean that we put our minds in neutral. It doesn’t mean that we don’t use common sense. What it means is that we don’t simply use our own reasoning, our own intelligence, or our own thoughts, as the sole guiding principle.
You know, we’ve all learned this lesson in life – sometimes the right thing isn’t always the reasonable thing. Sometimes the right thing may not be what everybody else thinks. Again, let me caution us here. We have to keep this in proper perspective. We have to be balanced in our appropriation of this verse, but imagine what the Bible would look like if everyone leaned upon their own understanding.
It didn’t make sense for Abraham (called of God) to go out in faith without a map to an unknown destination. That didn’t make sense, and yet God brought a nation out of Abraham’s faith.
It didn’t make sense when God told Moses to take the children of Israel across the Red Sea – water in front of them, Pharaoh’s chariots closing in behind them. God said, “Go forward.” And although it didn’t make sense, Moses and the children of Israel stepped into the waters and the sea parted and they crossed on dry ground.
It didn’t make sense when God called a young shepherd by the name of David to take a few stones and fight the giant of Gath – a guy by the name of Goliath. That made no sense, but a great victory was won. Why? Because the Bible tells us in Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD.”
It didn’t make sense for Gideon to reduce his army of 30,000 men down to 300 in order to fight the Midianites, but it was God’s way. And when he obeyed, God gave him a great victory.
It didn’t make sense when the angle of the Lord said to Mary, “You will bear the Messiah, you will conceive by way of the Holy Spirit and bring the Savior into the world.” That made no sense. But Mary responded, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). And the world was forever changed.
It didn’t make sense when Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and saw Peter, James and John mending their nets and said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). It didn’t make sense to leave their vocation – the only thing they ever knew to make a living. It didn’t make sense to leave their nets, their families, their livelihood and follow this stranger. Yet, they were compelled by the call of God; and these men changed the world, even though it didn’t make sense.
On and on we could go. When we trust God, we’re confident in His care for us and over our lives. Second, when we trust God…
We Are Committed to God’s Purpose
Notice the beginning of verse 6, “In all your ways acknowledge Him” (Proverbs 3:6a).
Did you get the emphasis of that verse? We’re reminded – even commanded – to acknowledge and recognize the Lord in all our ways. That means, in our financial lives, in our social lives (including social media), in our recreational lives (even on the golf course), in our vocational lives, in our marital lives, in everything we do or that we’re a part of, we’re called to acknowledge God.
The word “acknowledge,” in Hebrew comes from the root word yada. It literally means to “know.” Simply put, in every part of our life we’re to be looking for God. What does He want? What does He desire? Always keep God in mind. It’s more than just reading your Bible and it’s more than just praying. It’s seeking to be so closely associated with Christ Jesus that we think God’s thoughts, we speak God’s words, we work God’s way, we read articles and news and books with God’s perspective, we look at life through God’s eyes.
Now I know that it’s easy for me to stand up here and explain what this text should mean for our lives. It’s something altogether different for me to live it. But can you imagine how it would change our families? Change our marriages? Change the way we approach our jobs or retirement? Change the way we handle money? And change the way we speak to people?
There’s a lot of conversation among Christians about knowing God’s purpose for our lives and knowing God’s plans for us. And I’ve discovered that it’s not so much a matter of agonizing over what God’s specific purpose for my life is at any given moment in time, as much as it is obeying His general purposes which are already outlined.
For example, Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus’ commission to His disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
The Apostle Paul pretty much summarizes it all when he said this, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
If we’ll just commit to doing those things that God’s Word has already clearly told us to do, and stop agonizing and hesitating and creating excuses, then He’ll lead us. When we trust God, we’re committed to His purpose. Finally, when we trust God…
We Are Controlled By God’s Will
If we’ll do our part, then God will do His part and this is His part, “and He will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:6b). Even though this is a promise, it’s a conditional promise. You won’t find your life being controlled by God’s will unless you’re confident in His care and committed to His purpose.
Solomon is obviously talking about guidance and direction here. It’s what Isaiah said, “And the LORD will continually guide you” (Isaiah 58:11, NASB). It’s what Solomon’s father, David, once wrote, and I am sure taught Solomon when he said this in Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.”
But it’s more than just guidance. The word, “direct” or the phrase “make straight” is a word that literally means “free from obstacles, smooth, and flat.” Pastor and Bible teacher, James Merritt, says this, “When God is leading, and you are following, mountains will melt, valleys will be filled, crooked places will be straightened, rough places will be smoothed, doors will be opened and walls will fall down. When you let God get out in front, He will clear every obstacle that gets in your way to get you to where He wants you to go.”
Think about that phrase for a moment: “He shall direct your paths.” You can live your life on one of three levels.
- Level 1 is this: I do what I want to do. Frankly, that’s where most of the world lives today. That’s America in 2021. I do what I want to do.
- Level 2 is this: I think I do what I ought to do. That tends to be where a lot of Christians and “conscientious citizens” live today. They’re not quite certain, but they hope they’re doing what God wants.
- Level 3 – the highest level is this: I do what God leads me to do. That’s where God wants us to live – going where He leads, doing what He’s commanded, speaking His truth (not “my truth”).
But that still raises a question. How does God do it? How does He direct our paths? How does God reveal His will? First of all, He does it through His Word. Never forget that God’s direction will never contradict His instruction. And I know that what I’m about to say is not going to be received well by everyone, but the primary way that God directs us is through His Word – the Bible. It’s not through dreams, and visions, and supernatural revelations. I’m not saying those means aren’t used by God in some contexts, but the primary means that God uses for directing our paths and giving us His will is His inspired Word.
Second, God speaks to us in the recesses of our hearts through prayer. I really believe that God uses prayer as a means of speaking into our lives. Most of you will recall the story of Eli and Samuel; where God calls Eli’s name in the middle of the night. Eli thinks it’s Samuel, so he goes to see Samuel only to find out that Samuel wasn’t calling. This happens three times and on the third occasion Samuel tells Eli to listen for the voice again, but this time he should respond.
Many of you have had those kinds of experiences. It wasn’t necessarily an audible voice, but the conviction in your heart and the thinking in your head at that precise moment was clear enough that it could’ve been an audible voice. Right? The problem with God speaking to us in prayer isn’t so much that He doesn’t speak, but that we don’t do what He’s asking – call that friend and apologize and ask forgiveness (nope), use that gift or that money or that talent for someone other than yourself (thanks, but no thanks). He speaks; we just don’t follow through. And here’s the catch. We’ve talked ourselves out of responding to the call and will of God so many times that when it comes to moments when we really need/want to hear from Him we complain that He’s silent. Well, what do we expect when we’ve hardened our hearts.
Third, God will direct our paths through godly counsel. Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory” (Proverbs 11:14). One of the reasons why God puts godly, wise people in your path is to help you find God’s will and God’s direction for your life.
Dan Towner was attending a church meeting in Brockton, MA in the mid-1880’s and overheard a fellow say, “I’m not quite sure – but I’m going to trust, and I’m going to obey.” Dan wrote down that sentence, and sent it, with the story about the young man, to a Presbyterian minister named John H. Sammis. John took those words and that story and composed a hymn that many of us know today as Trust and Obey.
The first verse of that hymn goes like this: When we walk with the Lord | in the light of His Word | what a glory He sheds on our way | While we do His good will | He abides with us still | and with all who will trust and obey.
As we close this morning, would you allow me to challenge us (all) to truly trust in the Lord. We may not like the direction things are headed. I get it. We might have some valid concerns and fears about tomorrow. I get it. I do. But the world is watching. Now is the time for Christians and churches to demonstrate unwavering trust in the Lord our God.