”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
Proverbs 3:5New International Version (NIV)
Proverbs 3:5 Devotional (Daily Bible Verse)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Proverbs 3:5 tells you and me that we are to trust in God with all our hearts and not to depend on what we know. Because more often than not, we desire to understand what is going on in our lives and in the world.
But you need to always acknowledge that you cannot understand everything. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells you and me that we will not often understand what God is doing. He’s got the bird’s eye view.
In this popular verse, Solomon, the wisest man to have ever lived, gave us complimentary commands. He commanded you to trust in the Lord with all your heart, and not to lean on your own understanding.
Therefore, these two complementary commands then end up being mutually exclusive. That is, if you trust in the Lord, you will not depend upon your own understanding concerning the affairs of your life and everything God is doing. And this is the way of faith.
Specifically, the verse tells you and me not to be reliant on our strength and knowledge, but to rely on the Lord. Actually, to trust in the Lord with all your heart means that you have to rely on God in all your ways (Psalm 20:7). You have no room for doubt concerning His way in your life.
But this is contrary to the philosophy of the world where we are taught that we are very capable of handling anything that comes our way. For the methods of our abilities don’t include the power of God. They are all about the power of man.
Lean not on your own understanding
This means that you cannot place your own understanding above His will in our lives. But this is what happens when we insist on God always making sense to our finite minds. We end up setting ourselves up for disaster (Proverbs 16:25 and Judges 21:25).
Prayer/Blessing
Heavenly Father, I acknowledge that you are God alone. Your thoughts and your ways are high above my ways.
You are good, therefore, I want to trust in You with all my heart. I don’t want to lean on my own understanding.
Lord Jesus, please help me to have complete confidence in You. I hand every area of my life over to You, acknowledging that You know and have the best for each situation.
I surrender to You to direct my ways. In Your Name, I pray, Amen.
Daily Bible Reading
Luke 14-16 (see How to Read the Bible in One Year or How to Read the Bible (for Beginners))
