A God Directed Life

Finding Direction From the Lord

Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV)

5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Now Solomon gives us a formula for a God directed life, I will deal with each part, but I want to focus on the part about trust. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart…"

How does one, "trust in the Lord?" What is "trust?"

Perhaps have Eric come up and place him on the piano and have him jump to me, then humorously ask Bro. Philip or Bro. Addison or Bro. Mark to come up and try it..

I want to define this trust it means to feel safe, be confident, security. It is one of two words used in the Old Testament to express a trust or reliance upon someone in this case the Lord. The basic idea would have to do with firmness or solidity. Trust is different from faith, it is never translated as believe or believe in but it is sometimes as "hope" or "to rely on God" it is trying to stress the feeling of being safe or secure. The Psalms use this word about 50 times mostly pointing out the importance of trusting the Lord, but also show that it is not some kind of arrangement of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours but rather it is only because of God's unswerving loyalty and his gracious kindness. This hope in God is not some kind of wishing but a confident expectation. God revealed himself to the Hebrew people with the chief characteristics of faithfulness and trustworthiness.

This really is profound truth and produces tremendous fruit in the life of the believer. Perhaps Solomon learned this from his dad, David. David knew how to trust. He had to learn to trust. He trusted God with the bear, the Lion, and Goliath. He didn't have to know Goliath's strenght because he knew God's.

David writes

Psalm 20:7 (KJV)

7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

He realized that God had his back, because trust was a relationship, faith doesn’t have to be. David could trust because he, "had never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread."

Solomon passes that on to us- "Trust in the Lord" the songwriter said, "Tis so sweet to Trust in Jesus, just to take him at his Word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord."

He also tells us we need to trust in the Lord with all of our heart - all that we are, our thoughts, our feelings, our brilliance, we have to trust in the Lord and not depend on what we know, what we don't know, what we think might happen, what logic tells us, we must with all of our heart trust in the Lord, unashamedly, without fear, knowing He holds us in his hands.

Solomon is telling us that trusting in the Lord and not in our own understanding, and acknowledge Him in all our ways, is the path to a God directed life.

Acknowledg3 means to recognize the Lord's rights and authority, "To know" it means a personal knowledge, and intimate experience. Jeremiah shows that knowing the Lord is the same as having his word or law written upon the heart.

David says in Ps. 1:6 that the Lord knows the way of the righteous he means that the Lord is aware of the path, and enters into it to protect safeguard and guide.