Careful Where You Lean!

Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding”

Trust, in today’s society, is dying thing. The world seems to be filled with so much deceit, so many lies, so much back-stabbing that it is hard to trust anyone or anything.  The dictionary defines trust as this:

Trust (Verb) – believe that a person or thing is good, truthful, or reliable.

Trust (Noun) – the belief that a person or thing can be trusted; responsibility; being trusted

How many people can you honestly say you trust? I’m not talking about a “well I would/could trust them”; I’m talking about people you well and truly trust with anything. When it’s put like that the list in substantially shortened. However we are told to trust in the Lord with what? With half of our hearts? With most of our hearts? No we are told to trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Our hearts should be fully trusting in Lord.

Trust Him with what though you may ask? Simply answered; Everything. We should be trusting in the Lord with all our hearts in all matters of life. Trust in the Lord to wake you up in the morning; trust in the Lord to take your next breath; trust in the Lord to help you through anything; trust in the Lord with everything. It’s when you trust in the Lord like this that peace comes. If you’re trusting in the Lord with the understanding that whatever happens He has in hand then what is there to trouble you?!

Notice this isn’t the end of the verse though. It goes on to say “and lean not unto thine own understanding”. Now why shouldn’t we lean on our own understanding? I can think of two reasons:

1)      Our own understanding is weak. Say you were to lean on a rotten post, would it support you? Of course not, it is weak and as soon as pressure is put on it, it will crumble, break and fall as will you. The same is seen in our understanding. Compared to God, who knows all, our understanding of things is weak and unstable.

2)      Our own understanding is narrow. Say you were to lean on a thin pole with a pointed end, would this support you? Not at all, as soon as you lean on it, it is going to go through whatever is in contact with it and cause a lot of pain. The same again is seen in our understanding. Compared to Gods understanding, which is wide and can support anything, our understanding is so narrow that any trust put in it will end in pain.

So let me ask you today, who are you trusting in? Are you trusting in God or are you trusting your own understanding? How much are you trusting, with part of your heart, with most of it, or with all of it?

I pray that you take heed of this lesson and apply it to your hearts. Leaning on our own understanding will only lead to pain and regret, but if we trust with all our hearts in God, and lean on His understanding, nothing can go wrong. – A.