Proverbs 3:5-6
“5Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
– English KJV
" 5בטח אל יהוה בכל לבך ואל בינתך אל תשׁען׃ 6בכל דרכיך דעהו והוא יישׁר ארחתיך “
– Hebrew Text
“5Baṭach 'adar yehovah kol leb 'el biynah 'al sha‛an: 6kol derek yada hu yashar 'orach”
– Hebrew Pronunciation
This theory, however, is not always the case. In Joshua 9 we read how Joshua was fooled by the enemy. Their story seemed so obviously true that Joshua accepted it without asking the counsel of God and they were deceived! The easiest and most obvious path was not of God…
Proverbs 3:5-6 shows a cause and effect relationship. For God to direct our paths He requires three things:
1st Requirement:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart…”
The Hebrew word translated as trust is “batach”, which means to 1- trust, 2- be confident and 3- place all hope upon. It also means to find safety and comfort by “attaching” oneself to something – in this case it is the Lord.
The first requirement is that we must trust God for what we need with all of our heart. This is far more than merely “hope for”. We are confident that the Lord can and will provide, placing all our hope and trust in Him.
Here is an example:
If a man prayed for his headache to be eased and trusts (betach) the Lord for this healing, he will completely depend upon the Lord for healing. He will not go to the nearest pharmacy to purchase some medicine “just in case the Lord does not heal him”. He is absolutely confident that God will send the healing, placing all his hope in God. There is no question is his mind regarding whether God will do it or not, the man KNOWS that God will. This is the trust spoken of here.
This kind of complete trust is the first requirement.
2nd Requirement:
“…lean not on your own understanding.”
The English word “lean” is translated from the Hebrew word “shaan”. This means to lean or rely upon and place confidence in something or someone. This section is placed in the negative, focusing on the point that we must not rely upon ourselves or upon our own understanding.
Why not? Because we cannot see all ends! God is eternal, He is the beginning and the end and He alone can see the entire plan. Each of us can see only a single puzzle piece placed before us. These make no sense and we cannot even make out which way is up. God knows what the entire picture looks like, that is why we must lean on His understanding rather than our own.
We must trust the Lord, even if everything we understand tells us that it will not work. This “blind” following after God is the second requirement.
3rd Requirement:
“In all your ways acknowledge Him…”
Ways (derek in Hebrew) means pathways. Life is a journey with many pathways. We are asked to “acknowledge” God in all our ways. The word translated as “acknowledge” is “yada”. This is an amazing little word!
In context it means to (1)know God, to (2)know His ways, to (3)obtain knowledge from Him, to (4)discern the situations we are in as God would discern them and thereby to know how to handle them.
But there is more: It also implies that we must recognize, acknowledge, admit and confess that we can only do these things through God, not through ourselves and that God reveals and teaches us these things.
And there is still more! All of this while giving God the honor and praise for it, making it known that God is the one who deserves the honour and praise, taking none of it for ourselves.
I have been trying really hard, but I just can’t think of a single English word that incorporates all of these meanings… If you find this English word you can use it to describe the third requirement… Perhaps it is best suited to say that we must let God’s Word be our light, growing close to Him and giving Him all honour and praise.
The Result:
“…and He shall direct your path.”
Here we find see the causality in the verse. If we trust and depend on the Lord, rely on His wisdom, rather than our own and if we allow God’s Word to be a light to us, acknowledging Him through it all then God will direct our paths!
“Yashar” is the Hebrew word translated as “direct”. It literally means to straighten and to make even. Notice also that it does not say “God will think about directing our paths” or “If God is not too busy He will direct our paths”; it says that God WILL direct our paths! Isn’t that awesome? This is a wonderful and inspiring promise from God!
Easier said than done:
These requirements are easier to explain than to do. Situations in our lives will affect our ability (or the degree to which we are able) to stick to the requirements.
During tough times it is harder to stick to these requirements. But keep in mind that during these tough times the road is rougher and therefore God has a greater opportunity to level the road! The more difficult the situation, the greater opportunity God has to amaze you and the people around you with His providence and guidance! The rougher the road He levels, the greater His glory will be magnified! Therefore, during tough times remember that God plans an even greater release of His glory! Through our weakness His strength is magnified! It should be considered an honour to be a vessel through which God can magnify His glory!
But how is it that some people can handle rough times better than others?
It all comes down to the trust we place in God. It comes down to how close we stick to these requirements, and it is entirely dependent on our relationship with God. Our relationship with God will determine how close we are able to stick to these requirements and how we face the situations in our life. Next week we will be looking at the importance of our relationship with God.
Many Christians never learn to fully trust in Jesus. Many never realize the wonderful feeling of relief when all our troubles are picked up by God, releasing us into immeasurable peace and freedom. We can only do this by trusting in Jesus. The only way to trust Jesus with all of our hearts is to know Him personally. We must spend time growing our relationship with Him every single day!
Remember to grow close to God, to stick close to these requirements and also remember: If you cannot sleep because of your worries, stand up and go before God, giving all your worries to Him. Let God deal with your worries tonight, He is not planning to go to sleep anyway…
