Six Traits You Want In Your Life - 3. Trust - Proverbs 3:5-6 - Quick Observations

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Our online bible study of 2John is just getting started. If you are one of the ones that have signed up for the current one, check your email for the password to the posts and get involved. If you would like to participate when the next one starts, please fill out your name and email address to the right and you will be placed in a waiting list. When the next online bible study opens up, that list will be one of the first to be notified. Now to today’s quick observation.

This is a very popular and well quoted set of verses. We are so familiar with them that they become less effective in our lives. So lets look at an old familiar passage with fresh new eyes.

Looking at these verses, they can be split into 2 sections. First is our actions in verses 5-6a and second is the results in 6b. Let us examine these in more detail.

What does our trust supposed to look like. In verses 5 there is an internal aspect and 6a we see an external aspect. First the internal aspect. This can be split into two also, a positive look and a negative look. It says simply in verse 5 that we are to trust. Trust who our what? Trust in the Lord. If something or someone is to be trusted, it or they must be trustworthy or your trust will be shattered. The name God identifies Himself here is Yehovah, the Self-Existent One, or also known as “I Am”. Trust in the One Who is. This is the name God gave to Moses when Moses needed God’s Name. This name for God is used over 6000 times in the Old Testament. We are to trust in the Lord with all our heart. The heart is the symbol of the center of our being. Think of it this way. Trust in the Lord with all that we are, all that we do or say, all that we plan or dream. Trust in the Lord with everything about us. This first part is acknowledging the positive and the second part is denying the negative. Do not lean on our own understanding. Why? Because we are not trustworthy. We fail. We make mistakes. We even deceive ourselves. We are limited. We cannot understand fully. And we could go on. So we need to look beyond ourselves, really deny ourselves and place our trust in God.

Now let us look at the external aspect of our actions in trusting. Verse 6a says to acknowledge God in all our ways. Give God the credit for all the good. We should not be so smug to think that anything good can be accomplished by us without the hand of God in our lives. Recognize God’s work in all the bad. God is not the author of sin, but He can use a terrible situation caused by sin and use it for ultimate good.

Now the results in verses 6b. It says that He will direct our paths. What a wonderful promise. The Eternal God that can see the beginning from the end will lead us into all things according to His plan. Other translations say the He will make our paths straight. He will make sure we are going the right way. We just have to trust Him and not ourselves and make sure we give Him all the credit for it. Sounds easy huh? To not trust your own intuition and cognitive ability is one of the most difficult things anyone can ever do. Does it mean we check our brain at the door? No, it just means that God trumps us when we find a difference in opinion between Him and us.