“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).

Sometimes when I am finding it hard to find a place of peace and trust, it is because I have started to imagine all sorts of possible scenarios that might play out. I see in my minds eye all the worst things that can happen. All the unpleasant conversations that might take place.

In this 3-part devotion series, we have examined what it might mean to trust in the Lord with all your heart. We have suggested that a conscious focus on the attributes of God that particularly speak to the human heart can help us as we navigate life’s challenges. For example, if we remind ourselves that God is kind and God is faithful, we might more easily find the peace that we need because we know He will be faithful and kind towards us.

And if we avoid the temptation to link our faith with what we think we know about a person or what we might believe about a situation, we can instead rest in the truth that God sees and understands all things, and so we can trust Him.

The third line of this proverb simply tells us to submit to Him. In all our ways. This sounds to me like a reminder to declare that He is Lord. The Scriptures constantly tell us that the Lord is on His throne and that Jesus reigns at the right hand of the Father. He is sovereign, no-one is higher than Him. But sometimes we need to consciously submit all of our decisions, all of our problems, all of our comings and goings to His Lordship.

Regardless of how we may want a situation to play out, we must come to a place where we can say, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. Lord, you are a kind and good God and your have your perfect will. You have greater knowledge than me. While I sometimes base decisions on my assumptions, you see the actual truth. So, I submit my ways to you.

With these instructions in place that Lord promises He will make our paths straight. What does this mean? As we said in the first devotion in this series, a straight path implies that we won’t be zigzagging all over the shop trying to find peace or struggling to make sense of a situation.

A straight path will have no turns trying to distract us from our destination – a life of fruitfulness and purpose under the guiding hand of God.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).

In the first 4-minute devotion in this series, we said that our trust in the Lord during difficult situations, sometimes needs to move from our heads to our hearts. It is one thing to declare our faith in God and meditate on His promises, which are both good things to do during life’s pressures, but it is another to find a heart at peace throughout the ordeal.

We suggested one thing that might help: to think on those of God’s attributes that particularly speak to the human heart. For example, God is kind, and His everlasting kindness is always directed towards us. And God is faithful. God keeps His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. As spiritual descendants of God’s chosen people through faith in the risen Christ, His faithfulness will always reach to us.

The second instruction in this short proverb is to “lean not on your own understanding”. In other words, look beyond the limits of your thinking and imagination. I have found that simple trust in God during challenging circumstances can be easily killed when I allow my mind to wander. When I think I understand every part of the situation; when I cannot see a way through, when I make assumptions about other people. When I put too much confidence in my own understanding of what is going on.

A friend of mine tells the story of working with a person whose attitude towards him seemed uncaring, rude, and even, at times, hostile. He wondered what he had done to offend him and even became afraid of “saying the wrong thing”. He felt he had to “walk on eggshells” around him. He struggled to come to terms with the thought that a Christian brother would behave like this workmate.

Until, one day, he realised that his partner was displaying some symptoms of a mental health condition. A well-known neurological disorder. The man wasn’t meaning to be rude; his brain was just wired differently. With a little more understanding of the situation, my friend was able to pray for a new perspective and trust God for a way forward.

When we focus only on what we think we know, when we forget to question our assumptions, when we believe we have all the facts (when we don’t), it is easy to lean on our own understanding, instead of trusting God to solve the puzzle from the view He has of the bigger picture.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight”.

Seeking the Lord for His understanding is so much better than making judgments with only a handful of the facts.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).

Christians can, on occasion, find it hard to trust God in the situations that they face. It is not that God is not trustworthy, more that we can sometimes struggle to look away from the things that make us anxious, to a place where we rest in the peace that God wants to give us.

Today’s two verses from the Book of Proverbs give us three instructions that I believe help us to obey Jesus’ teaching in Matt 6 when he said, “do not worry about your life” (Matt 6: 25).

First, “trust in the Lord with all of your heart”. If you have been a follower of Jesus for any amount of time you will have read many verses that tell us, or encourage us, to put our trust in God. We can speak out our faith in God in difficult circumstances and we can read stories of others who have remained steadfast, hanging on to the promises of the Lord through life’s challenges.

But sometimes the concept of trust stays in our heads (that is, “I know I need to put my faith in God in this situation, so I’ll just keep saying the verses”) but it doesn’t reach our hearts. God wants us – you, to trust Him from the depths of your heart. How do we do that?

I am still learning this, but I find it helpful to think about those attributes of God’s character that particularly speak to the human heart. Here are a couple that speak to me:

First, God is kind. Following the Lords severe judgment of the nation of Israel by way of their Babylonian captivity, He made this promise to His children through the prophet Isaiah,

“In a surge of anger

I hid my face from you for a moment,

but with everlasting kindness

I will have compassion on you,”

says the LORD your Redeemer (Isaiah 54: 8).

God is a God of compassion, and His everlasting kindness is always directed towards His people – towards us. Therefore, He will treat you kindly in your situation.

Second, God is faithful. What does it mean that God is faithful? Deuteronomy 7: 9 reminds us that “…he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”

A thousand generations is a very long time. If five generations is about a hundred years, then a thousand must be at least two hundred times that. As Christians, our spiritual roots come from God’s chosen people in the scriptures, way back in history. And Christ himself. Jesus perfectly loved His Father and kept His commandments. Therefore, God faithfully keeps His covenant of love to Him and therefore, also to us.

In other words, God is faithful to us because He is faithful to His Son and to His people. And so, God will be faithful to you, in your situation. He will not let you down. He sees it all and knows how to work it out.

Therefore, you can trust Him with all of your heart. And the promise is: He will make your paths straight. We don’t need to be zigzagging all over the shop trying to find peace or struggling to make a decision. We can trust Him with all of our heart.

“If the Lord had not been on our side— let Israel say — if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us; the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away. Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Ps 124: 1 – 8)

I wonder if you have ever pondered a memory where, on reflection, if God hadn’t answered that prayer, if that thing hadn’t happened, if that person hadn’t arrived when they did, your situation might have turned out very differently.

Sometimes we only see the hand of the Lord when we look back afterwards.

I remember a time, when for a long season, I couldn’t work out what God was doing. A couple of people, good people, misunderstood my reasons for a decision that I made, and they began to think the worst of me. I tried to explain what was going on, we had several conversations, but things just went from bad to worse.

There isn’t space here to tell the whole story, but as things continued to go pear-shaped, I struggled to discern what God was up to. Until I realised (very slowly) that The Lord had plans I knew nothing about. New plans for me and new plans for the others involved in the situation.

Now, when I reflect on that portion of my life, I realise, like the psalmist, that if the Lord hadn’t been on our side (or “for us”, as he promises in Rom 8: 31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”), if He hadn’t granted me wise counsel form another brother at just the right time, if circumstances had played out differently, well… I dread to think how things might have turned out.

But the truth is, God fulfilled his purposes, and He answered prayers, even though some answers were unexpected. He made me realise how much I needed Him, and He challenged me on a few things too.

If the Lord hadn’t been on my side, if (with His help) I hadn’t clung to His promises, remembering that He is the Maker of heaven and earth (and so can do anything), I might not have seen the victory. I might have missed the new thing He was creating.

When stuff happens, it is easy to take our eyes off the Lord, to forget that as His children, He is “on our side”. It may take a while to realise that he is readjusting some plans and expectations, so that “our side” is shaped to His purposes, but He will keep us safe in the battle that gets us there.

Remember: The Lord is on your side. And His purposes in your situation are good purposes.

“Show me your ways, LORD,

teach me your paths.

Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long” (Ps 25: 4 – 5).

I don’t know if David intended this when he wrote Psalm 25, but it seems to me there is a big difference between God’s Ways and His Paths.

The phrase “God’s Ways” in the Scriptures can refer to several things. It might be His plans or his actions, or His decisions, but it is always related to His character. His ways are who He is, seen by what He decides to do (or not do). It describes how His principles shape His will; how His wisdom drives His judgments and choices.

If we were to liken these descriptions to a human analogy, God’s ways are like the rules and principles of safe driving - the rules of the road or Highway Code as it is referred to in some countries. With that picture in mind, God’s paths can be His directions to your destination.

When we pray, “show me your ways” we are asking Him to reveal to our minds and hearts how we can drive our lives within the wise and safe boundaries of His will and within the principles of His Word. When we pray, “teach me your paths”, this overlaps with a desire to know His ways, but it is also asking for specific guidance.

“Lord, what is my destination?” “How do I get there?” “Do I go the long way round, or is there a shortcut?” “Is there a blockage in the road some distance away that I don’t yet see?” “Do I turn left here or right?”

Sometimes I think I need to pray something like, “Lord, teach me to recognise your paths”. The Lord doesn’t need to change the way He speaks, but I need to learn to how hear and discern His voice better than I do. If I am driving the car of my life too fast, the Lord’s directions to take a slow detour may not be heard above the roar of the engine.

The Ways of the Lord are referred to four more times in Psalm 25. God instructs sinners in His ways and the humble are taught His way. The ways of the Lord are loving and faithful and those that fear the Lord are given first-hand instruction as to the ways they should choose.

Our loving Heavenly Father has much to teach us on our journey towards His destination. He wants to transform our minds and our characters to be more like His, so that while driving safely, we move with passion and purpose. He also wants to teach us how to read His map, what speed to drive down each part and where and when to stop and take a break.

Sometimes we may come to a fork in the road and wonder which way to go. He may whisper “this way” to those who can hear, or He may say, “You choose. You know my ways, I have equipped and empowered you to make good decisions”.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he famously lists the essential offices that leaders carry in churches under his care – people who serve as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Their purpose? “To equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

God wants his people to be mature in their faith, full of Christ, equipped for every task, “Built up”.

The apostle continues: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph 4: 11 – 16)

I want you to notice that although we rightly celebrate and honour the role of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers as they equip us to serve God, mould us towards unity and increase our knowledge of Jesus, the responsibility for growth also lies on us.

Paul tells us we can grow by speaking the truth to each other in love, and we can grow by building up one another in love. Paul sees growth as a together activity. Within a community that is soaked in love.

Like a human body, the parts of Christ’s body cannot exist on their own. We are joined to each other, “held together by every supporting ligament”. We grow in our faith as a unity. Together. Together in love.

The body of Christ “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work”. I can convince myself that I am growing in my faith as I study Scriptures on my own. That is an important part of my day, but if I only read God’s Word in solitude, I don’t hear the insights of those who are different to me. I miss the joy of seeing a verse impact a friend in a new way, and I’ll lose the benefit of a brother’s Godly challenge as he speaks the truth in love.

I can try to be brave as I face life’s challenges, seeking the Lord for help, waiting for His promises to come to pass. But on my own will never be enough. There will always be something missing. As God’s children, we are joined, held together, which means my tears become your tears and your sorrows become mine. The new creation of God’s people under Christ as the head, and shepherded by his appointed leaders, still needs to “build itself up in love, as each part does its work”.

Building and growing is not a solo activity in the New Testament. It requires the challenge of sharing my life with others; opening up when I’d rather face the darkness alone. Finding the work Christ wants me to do to strengthen his body in the place where he has called me to serve alongside others.

After Joseph (of technicolour dream coat fame) had been in an Egyptian prison for some time, we read that he had an unusual conversation with two of Pharaoh’s officials.

Both had been forced into custody following an offense with their master and one morning they woke up, each one remembering a vivid dream. As they relayed their dreams to the young Hebrew, Joseph was able to interpret them. With chilling accuracy.

Within 3 days, the Egyptian king called for his officials to be released from their chains, one being restored to his original position in the court, the other to be executed. Joseph’s predictions had not only come true, but they were correct even to the details as to how the executed man will die.

Joseph was not a popular brother growing up among members of his family. He was clearly daddy’s favourite and there were times when humility and wisdom might have gone a long way. Some would likely have called him arrogant, but one thing rings clear throughout the biblical narrative and that is that he had a call on his life. God had purposes for him, and he knew it.

So, when he found himself confined in a foreign jail, he must have wondered about God’s plans for him. Were they all in his imagination? Were the dreams he had as a teenager just silly dreams, meaning nothing? Did hope evaporate years ago?

One thing that impresses me, though, about Joseph in this story is his attitude to God and his attitude to others. As hard as it must have been from him to live for so long in basic prison conditions, he does not appear to be self-focused. It is Joseph who notices that Pharaohs officials are troubled as they reflect on their respective dreams. He then takes the trouble to ask, “Why do you look so sad today?” (Gen 40: 7).

When they told him their predicament that they knew of no-one to help them understand their dreams, Joseph was quick to offer help.

But he was also quick to give glory to God. “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.” (Gen 40: 8).

Joseph could have made any number of self-serving decisions that day. He could have been so absorbed in his problems that he failed to notice burdens others were carrying. He might have seen the concerned looks on the faces of his fellow prisoners but then choose to look away and ignore them. He might have helped them interpret the dreams but then claim that his skills came from his own cleverness and greatness.

Instead, Joseph, chose to care for those around him and give glory to God. I think God saw that. I think God saw that Joseph was faithful to sense The Lord’s promptings away from the limelight and do His will.

On that day, the favourite son of Jacob was faithful in small things, and if you know the end of the story, we know that God eventually trusted him with a ministry the size of the nation.

The master in Jesus’ Parable of the Talents says to one of the servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matt 25: 21)

I believe that is the heart of God towards us as we seek to be faithful to Him in the small things of life.

“Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions” (Gen 15: 13 – 14).

400 years is a long time. I have problems waiting 20 minutes for an overdue doctor’s appointment but 400 years! God waited that long for His purposes to be completed. Why would God allow His people to be servants (enslaved and oppressed as the CSB puts it) for so many years?

The writer of Genesis tells us a little more in the next couple of verses: “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (v 15 – 16).

God was not in a rush for the descendants of Abraham (then, Abram) to enter their Promised Land because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”. Basically, Abram, your kids and grandkids and great grandkids etc are going have to wait because the Amorites haven’t finished sinning yet! Why would God be content with such a slow-moving timetable?

And what have the Amorites got to do with anything?

The Exodus narrative is a key theme of the Bible. The story of Moses leading God’s people out of enslavement (when the 400 years was eventually up), is told and re-told many times throughout the Scriptures. The Lord often referred to himself as “…the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves (Lev 26: 13).

Centuries later, the prophet Jeremiah reminded God’s people of that truth (in 7: 21) as did Hosea: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos 11: 1).

When Matthew describes the Christmas narrative of Joseph, Mary and their newborn, Jesus, fleeing to Egypt to escape the clutches of a jealous king Herod, and their eventual return to Israel, the same Hosea reference to the Exodus story is quoted, suggesting Jesus as a fulfillment to it.

A grown-up Jesus miraculously met with Moses on the Mount of transfiguration and our Lord eventually became the Passover lamb. The meal before the Exodus evolved into a meal of bread and wine signifying for all time Christ’s death for our sins on the cross.

God seemed shockingly patient with the Amorites as they continued to sin before Him for hundreds of years, whilst His people quietly formed themselves into a nation, waiting for his salvation.

Time ambled on through centuries and millennia, occasionally marking an instant of God’s presence or intervention (e.g. Esther being raised to Queen “at such a time as this” to save God’s people from annihilation), God patience always waiting for the perfect moment for the next step of His plan: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5: 6)

God is infinitely patient because He knows His timing of all things. He sees all the circumstances, knows when the variables will fall into place, and like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, “…is never late, nor is he early, (but) he arrives precisely when he means to”.