Trust the Father

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

This scripture is extremely instructive and it is the key to a peaceful life. A little girl in the arms of her father may not know where her father is taking her to but she remains totally at peace, trusting in her father’s love. In the very same way, we are encouraged to trust the Lord and, never to trust our own understanding. Those two instructions are mutually exclusive. In other words, if we trust in the Lord, we cannot also depend upon our own understanding (thoughts) on anything. We either trust Him or we don’t. We either trust Him or we trust ourselves. It’s that simple. There are a few reasons why we have trouble with this issue:

The need to see the whole picture

First Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

One thing is for sure, we can only see part of the picture God is painting at any time, and this makes us uncomfortable. We want to see the whole picture, we want to know exactly where we are going and He says trust Me. God alone sees the full picture and knows the end from the beginning. Our job is not to know but to trust and flow with the part that is revealed to us. This is wisdom.

To truly trust Him, we have to let go of our plans, ambitions, thoughts, feelings, agendas, etc because even the best-laid plans cannot begin to hold a candle to God’s plan. Let’s trust His plan and His vision for He makes all things beautiful.

The need to control

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom” 1 Corinthians 1:25

As adults we tend to have almost a desperate need to always understand everything, we need to understand why, what, when, how…etc and in truth, if we really look at it, it’s all about a need to be in control. It’s like we are fighting to be in the driver’s seat, we want to be in charge of our lives. But it is so much wiser if we emulate Jesus and say “Not my will but Yours be done”. We must begin to appreciate that control belongs solely to God.

Many times we don’t grasp what God is doing, sometimes we are completely baffled because things don’t make sense. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us why: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.'” In other words, we think differently from God and we certainly could do with an upgrade.

When we insist on God always making sense to our finite minds, we are being very foolish and setting ourselves up for disaster (Judges 21:25). Our very limited understanding can easily lead us in the wrong direction (Proverbs 16:25)

To trust in the Lord with all our heart means we can’t place our own need to understand above Him, we must completely relax and rely on God to direct our lives as He pleases just like a child.

We have to decide whether to live according to our personal preference or according to the will of God. Very often we may not understand exactly how or what God is doing but God we trust that He loves us and He makes “all things to work together for (our) good” (Romans 8:28).

God bless you

I am Olufunme