“Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
We each have our own ways, designed by the paths we have taken – our experiences, accomplishments, failures, desires, loves, and hates. We tread the pool of life alone, with friends, and with family till the day we realize that it is Christ who gives life; his death gave us life. God then gives us a new heart, new desires, but the old is still there being transformed and remolded. It’s a slow process, and often a process that we at times work against.
Not always do we work against God because we’re malicious and callous, but because we are still relying on our own understandings, on our old ways of thinking – it’s so natural for us to turn to our default system in times of stress, pain, and sorrow. And though it’s so natural, our new nature begins to work against the old, a bit of tug and pull between two desires. Where do we turn to? How do we make it?
We turn to God and trust Him. Why it’s so hard for us? It is because of our natural tendency to try to control everything ourselves. We’ve lived this way for so long, relying on ourselves to make it, to decide, to live. Friends and family have let us down, and we’ve let ourselves down too, but we only got our self; we continue doing it our way. So Solomon urges us, “lean not on your own understanding,” don’t just count yourself from now on. Allow God to be God in your life now, especially now that you have chosen to start a relationship with him. Let God’s vote not just count, but be the vote that matters.
The promise is that if we let God’s vote be the one we follow, that if we “submit to him”, he will guide us, “he will make your paths straight”. It’s not easy to do at first, but if we learn to trust and to follow, turning aside our tendency for our own desires and own ways, we’ll discover just how good God is. Not that everything will be perfect, or that no pain shall come our way, that’s not true for anyone living here in this broken world, but that God will guide us through it all. Because we all suffer, no one is exempt from this, but the difference is whether we will suffer alone, or suffer with a loving God who will guide us and comfort us along this short life.
“He will make your paths straight”, imagine your life at its best, living out your full potential for good, what you were created for. Not wasting time, but learning growing, and doing correctly. I say correctly because there is a way to do things incorrectly (like putting together a bike, using the wrong tool, or baking a cake without eggs or water). God’s desire is for your best, but it takes us to trust Him and be lead by his word and Holy Spirit. Let’s move forward into victory and a dynamic relationship with our Creator!
