Lean Not

“Trust in the Lord with all your Heart, and Lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). This is a common verse that many believers know by heart, and can often be one of the first verses that one memorizes as a new believer. Sometimes this verse though becomes so familiar that it can lose its impact or meaning in our lives. Recently though, God brought me back to this verse and had me meditate on it.

At first it seemed simple – “Yes, Lord. I know this verse. I know what it means”. But as He kept me coming back to this verse day after day, I knew that He wanted me to go deeper with it. I began to ask “What does it mean to Trust God with all my heart?” Do I not already do that? Do I not already trust you God? Is trusting God not a basic element to my faith? Why Lord are you bringing me back to this verse about Trust?

I felt like God was asking me to move beyond the first part unto the second “lean not on your own understanding”. We may feel that Trusting God is easy – and sometimes that is the case, especially when life makes sense to us, and it goes the way we expect it. But I felt like God was saying – do you trust me even when life does not make sense to you? Do you trust me even when you cannot understand what is happening around you, or when your world seems to have been flipped upside down? God was pushing me because that is exactly where I needed to go – I needed to learn what it meant to really trust Him even when life was not making sense to “my own understanding”, to my own human perspective on life. I feel He was asking me to go deeper with my trust, to lean on Him and His ways and not my own.

On one hand trust seems so simple, and on the other hand, it can be multi-layered. Was I willing to hold onto and trust God with my circumstances, even though they were not what was expected? Although some people may already have learned this, it was something that I needed to reflect on, something I need for God to speak to my heart. As He revealed this truth in His word, His peace filled my heart where there was once chaos – it was this truth that I needed to continue in the journey He had before me.

One mentor and friend recently reminded me that part of our faith journey is learning to trust God in new ways each step of the way. Our Trust in Him continues to grow if we allow it to, and God continues to ask us “Will you trust me with this part of your life?” “What about this part of your life”.

God continues to stretch us and wants us to grow, and part of this growth and stretching comes as we learn to trust Him in new ways.

Reflection:

What situation in your life right now are you having difficulty in trusting God? Why? How might God be asking you to go deeper with your trust in Him? Why is trusting God some days so difficult?