WISDOM OF THE PROVERBS: Trust In The Lord

WISDOM OF THE PROVERBS — TRUST IN THE LORD

The book of Proverbs found in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible are wise statements of truth. They give understanding in the application of biblical teachings to our lives. The over riding theme of the many proverbs is wisdom. There are indeed other common threads found in Proverbs but in almost every chapter something is said about wisdom or getting understanding etc.

The wisdom of the Proverbs for this article is found in Proverbs 3:5-6. This may be one of the most popular passages found in the Proverbs. Here it is:

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Trust In The Lord With All Thine Heart...

Trust In The Lord With All Thine Heart…

Before we can trust in The Lord we need to have faith in Him.  Faith is believing in something that is true that you cannot see.  How can you trust someone who you do not believe in? So faith is required to implement this wise statement of truth.  Not only must you trust in The Lord but you must do it with all your heart. In the scriptures the term “heart” often represents your whole soul or all your energy.  So we must trust in The Lord with everything we have.

We must NOT lean to our own understanding. In other words we must not expect answers to prayers in a very specific way. In most cases, we must expect the answer to be what The Lord, in His infinite knowledge and wisdom wants for us at that particular time.  Often He will answer our prayers the way we want but at a different level than we expect.  So we need to remember not to lean unto our own understanding but trust that The Savior will provide what is best.

Not only must we trust in Jesus but in all our ways, or in all aspects of our life, we must show gratitude for all that He has done for us.  We should not fail to see the simple as well as the grand blessings we have been given by our Master. Just as the sun rises everyday doesn’t mean we will.  Just having another day on this earth to serve The Lord is a great blessing. In all our way show gratitude for all our blessings.

Now here comes the best part of the passage. “He shall direct thy paths.” How eternally wonderful is this? He will direct our paths. With Christ at the helm of our lives how can we go astray? To have Jehovah in our lives is as simple as these virtues: Trust, Disregard our own understanding in favor of His and Be grateful. So here is the mathematical formula to receiving blessings from our Redeemer:  Faith + Trust + His will + Gratitude = Blessings.

With The Lord on our side how can we fail? The wisdom of the Proverbs is a grand blessing for us. Search that ye may find and apply to your every day life.

Faith and Trust

FAITH and TRUST

Some say Faith and Trust mean the same thing in the context of Proverbs 3:5-6. Consider the passage…

proverbs3:5-6

Trust In The Lord Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

In order to trust in The Lord you need to have faith in Him first.  How can you trust in a being you have need seen in person without having faith first.  So in this case faith comes before trust.  Once you have faith in The Lord then you are admonished by the proverb to trust in Him. It’s one thing to believe in Jesus but do you trust in Him?

Do you trust that He will do what the scriptures says He will do such as extending His mercy to you or bless you and comfort you etc.?  I think most of us would say yes to that question. But do we feel in our heart that so long as we lean not to our own understanding and acknowledge Him, He will direct our paths?

If we trust in Him to do as the Proverb says then do we rely on our own understanding or do we expect the blessing to come as we see fit?  We have desires that we would like fulfilled and many of them righteous desires but Jesus knows what’s best for us and their could be many righteous answers to prayers. Do we trust that The Lord will give us what’s best for us regardless of what we think? If we trust that The Lord will bless us according to His wisdom then He will direct our paths.

So from what I see in this passage of scripture I  say that first we have faith in The Lord. Then we trust in Him which is a higher level of faith. After that we show gratitude and He will bless us.

Jesus Is The Same: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Jesus Is The Same: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Today’s Christian Devotional

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ

I think most Christians have heard this truism many times but have you ever thought about it deeply?  What does it mean to us today and tomorrow?

Jesus Christ that we worship today, is the same Savior that was worshipped by the great prophets, apostles and saints thousands of years ago and He will be the same Redeemer we will worship fifty years from now.

When people are investing their money they often wonder if the investment will be as successful five years into the future as it is today. Is it a solid investment. We wonder if various aspects of our life will be the same in the future as it is today? The answer is no. The future changes everything. But the future does not change a glorified and perfected being such as Jesus Christ. We can look with faith on him now and in the future knowing He is the one constant we can count on.  The perfect way to anchor your faith.

The Gospel Of Peace

The Gospel Of Peace

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33

 

Following Jesus Christ will bring peace into our lives.  There are many places in our lives where we need peace. Try as we may, we cannot always acquire peace on our own. Faith in The Master will bring peace into every aspect of our life. The world will give us tribulations and tribulations take peace away.  But Jesus has overcome the world so that among other things, we can have peace where the world would tell us otherwise.

Even in tribulations we can have peace equal to our faith in Jesus Christ.