“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…”–Proverbs 3:5a
This verse is so commonly spoken and memorized that I think we often overlook the importance of what it says. It’s easy for people to say that they’re trusting the Lord or advise others to trust the Lord in what they’re facing, but what does that phrase really mean? How does one practically put this phrase into effect?
I have meditated on this verse much more over the last five years since I’ve moved halfway across the country from where I had lived most of my life. I wrestled with what it means to trust although I’ve considered myself fairly accustomed to trusting the Lord throughout my life. The funny thing is that just when I think I’m well aware of what a concept like trust means, I begin to learn that there are significant facets of which I haven’t even scratched the surface. This can be disheartening on some levels, but also incredibly enticing.
I recently read a devotional on this subject of trust. The author referenced the fact that we cannot simultaneously think negatively about a situation and trust God; we cannot fear the worst and look to Him with a sense of anticipation at the same time. Trusting requires us to conscientiously put aside the troublesome thoughts and intentionally grab ahold of God’s promises in His Word, which leads me to another verse I’ve been meditating upon: 2 Corinthians 10:5. We can decide to make our thoughts obedient to what we believe; that’s part of the beauty of how we are made. He endowed us with free will to make good choices.
As much as I can ponder and process the first part of Proverbs 3:5, the second clause has held my attention more than ever over the last five years: “lean not on your own understanding.” So many times I have tried to make the wisest choice in a situation, only to find that there were details that I hadn’t considered to be even remotely related. God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9); I’ve alluded to this before, and I am deferring to this verse again because there will always be pieces of this life that won’t make sense to us in the realm of our own understanding. That is why we shouldn’t “lean on” it when we should be consciously putting things in God’s hands–sometimes I’ve had to put situations in His hands every few minutes, over and over, because I take it back and try to figure it out or resolve it myself. Yes, we should use the resources, knowledge, and wisdom that God grants us, but we must remember that our expected results may look nothing like what God has ordained for us.