on my mind lately
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3: 5, 6
I've read it a thousand times. I've heard it a thousand times. It's a verse we all know and could repeat without looking.
But for some reason these words came alive the other day, "acknowledge me in all you say and do"....
Acknowledge: accept or admit the existence or truth of. recognize the fact or importance or quality of.
Am I accepting the existence of Him in all I say and do?
Am I admitting the truth of Him in all I say and do?
Do I recognize the fact and importance and quality of Him in all I say and do?
What does it even look like to act in this way? What does it look like for a life to show this?
To accept His existence is to come to a place of humble understanding that He is God and we are not.
To admit the truth of Him is to believe this through thick and thin, good and bad. It is to remind ourselves of this when our faith and belief is tested the most.
To recognize the fact and importance and quality of Him is to know that all we need is Him, and only Him. It is to know that He is the ultimate satisfaction. And without Him, we have nothing.
Ravi Zacharias speaks on this in his article The Test of Trust:
I've read it a thousand times. I've heard it a thousand times. It's a verse we all know and could repeat without looking.
But for some reason these words came alive the other day, "acknowledge me in all you say and do"....
Acknowledge: accept or admit the existence or truth of. recognize the fact or importance or quality of.
Am I accepting the existence of Him in all I say and do?
Am I admitting the truth of Him in all I say and do?
Do I recognize the fact and importance and quality of Him in all I say and do?
What does it even look like to act in this way? What does it look like for a life to show this?
To accept His existence is to come to a place of humble understanding that He is God and we are not.
To admit the truth of Him is to believe this through thick and thin, good and bad. It is to remind ourselves of this when our faith and belief is tested the most.
To recognize the fact and importance and quality of Him is to know that all we need is Him, and only Him. It is to know that He is the ultimate satisfaction. And without Him, we have nothing.
Ravi Zacharias speaks on this in his article The Test of Trust:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 were some of the first Scripture verses I memorized as a child. For some reason, the words seemed to bounce with joy, energy, and a sense of lightness as I learned them. For me, these were very “happy” verses in Scripture—verses that seemed to indicate God’s direct guidance for all his children down happy, straight pathways. I inferred that trusting in God’s guidance would be the result of seeing the wonderful, straight pathways laid out before me that I would willingly and gladly walk on towards all my goals, desires, and dreams.
Yet “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” took on new meaning in the face of absence, want, and unfulfillment. Have you ever experienced this dissonance that comes from the contradiction of your personal experience and your beliefs? What do you do, for example, when you’ve believed that God always heals, and yet you watch helplessly as your mother dies of cancer? What do you feel when you’ve been told that God has a wonderful plan for your life, and yet you can’t square that wonderful plan with a series of professional and personal failures?
If you’re like me, the fortress of beliefs you thought were impenetrable come crashing down as life experience smashes that fortress like a battering ram. In the aftermath, the alternative shelters of cynical doubt or blind faith beckon you to take your refuge with them. For most of us, we run perilously between both extremes, without the sense of security that the fortress once provided.
While these are still precious Scripture verses to me, I have come to understand them differently as an adult. I recognize now that trusting the Lord was easy when everything was going my way! I didn’t rely on my own understanding because I didn’t have to! But, when dreams began to die, life-goals went unmet, and desires dried up, I realized the challenge these verses really offer; they offered me the opportunity to learn the real meaning of “trust.”
Real trust in the Lord is only forged out of the fires of testing—testing that reveals whether we truly trust in the Lord or in what we want the Lord to give us. In other words, do we trust the Provider, or the Provider’s provisions? In my own life, when it seemed that God withdrew the “provisions” and things stopped going my way, my plans failed, or my goals and dreams didn’t materialize, I began to realize that my trust was in my own understanding of what was necessary to make my paths straight. So, as God had abandoned my plans, my test of trust began."
Yet “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” took on new meaning in the face of absence, want, and unfulfillment. Have you ever experienced this dissonance that comes from the contradiction of your personal experience and your beliefs? What do you do, for example, when you’ve believed that God always heals, and yet you watch helplessly as your mother dies of cancer? What do you feel when you’ve been told that God has a wonderful plan for your life, and yet you can’t square that wonderful plan with a series of professional and personal failures?
If you’re like me, the fortress of beliefs you thought were impenetrable come crashing down as life experience smashes that fortress like a battering ram. In the aftermath, the alternative shelters of cynical doubt or blind faith beckon you to take your refuge with them. For most of us, we run perilously between both extremes, without the sense of security that the fortress once provided.
While these are still precious Scripture verses to me, I have come to understand them differently as an adult. I recognize now that trusting the Lord was easy when everything was going my way! I didn’t rely on my own understanding because I didn’t have to! But, when dreams began to die, life-goals went unmet, and desires dried up, I realized the challenge these verses really offer; they offered me the opportunity to learn the real meaning of “trust.”
Real trust in the Lord is only forged out of the fires of testing—testing that reveals whether we truly trust in the Lord or in what we want the Lord to give us. In other words, do we trust the Provider, or the Provider’s provisions? In my own life, when it seemed that God withdrew the “provisions” and things stopped going my way, my plans failed, or my goals and dreams didn’t materialize, I began to realize that my trust was in my own understanding of what was necessary to make my paths straight. So, as God had abandoned my plans, my test of trust began."
To trust and acknowledge Him is a choice. It is a daily, moment to moment choice. Opportunities to choose this come in the little struggles and in the life changing tragedies.
In every moment, through every struggle, despite whatever tragedies hit, I want my life to acknowledge Him. I want to accept and admit and recognize the fact and importance and quality of Him first and foremost.
Now for the rest of this life breathing verse,
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths, Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones."
Proverbs 3: 5-8
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