THURSDAY September 19th
Proverbs 3:5-6
‘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 straight your paths.’
I ended the previous devotion with these verses which we are all very familiar with. Three things we are required to do and in doing so, the Lord will make our paths straight!
We are all on a journey of faith which we commenced on the day that we committed our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the road that I have travelled on and will continue to travel on will be different to yours and vice versa, but what is essential that we make the journey with Jesus.
In the order of which the instructions appear in these verses, we first need to trust in the Lord. We can consider this firstly as being when we first put our faith in him, and what a day that was, even if we may not have fully understood everything at the time, but as we have grown and matured spiritually, we will have realised it was a defining moment in our life. But secondly, we also learn to trust the Lord daily and wholeheartedly. For every new morning is a new and a fresh day as we walk with him. We entrust each day to him, knowing that he knows best.
Then we are to ensure that we do not lean on our own understanding. As we walk, we don’t try to work things out according to our own will or desire, we seek to know and to understand what his will is for us, if we don’t, we will so easily go astray.
Then we are to acknowledge him in all our ways, this to me points to making Jesus the centre of who we are, what we are and all that we do, it is his way and not my way, his path and my path, it is seeking not only the mind of God but the will of God over every aspect of my life, being it personal, family, work etc.
Then the Lord will direct our paths, making sure they are straight for us.
Are you feeling a little lost spiritually, sometimes if I am going to a new place which I don’t know too well, I will try to navigate my way through, and at times I get lost, when all along especially in the car or while walking with my phone a map is readily and easily available! But no, my independence wants to try to work it out!
Perhaps someone is reading this today and you have sought to live independently from the good, perfect and acceptable will of God for your life, if you are not already lost you soon will be, consult the map, the instruction that God has given, to enable you to reach the destination that he is wanting you to reach.