trust in the lord

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

(Proverbs 3:5-6)

Trust In

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;

There should be nothing that comes between you and the Lord.

Your love for him

Your devotion to him

Your reliance upon him

Your desire for him

Everything that you do, all the way you live, all things you come to think and believe should be based upon and reflect your trust in, The Lord.

And why not?

He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Who can we compare unto God, where can we find one that is like him?

It is said of one book that it is the oldest written book of the Bible. It seems to have come into being before there was a Hebrew Nation, before Israel were a people, and possibly before even Abraham.

We believe this is the case only because the Book of Job did neither mention the original “people of the Book”, nor was there any reference to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But also, we believe this to be the case for the years of the Life of Job was great, similar to the years of those only a few generations removed from the flood. Abraham lived till he was 175 years of age, Job lived one hundred and forty years after his last daughters were given in marriage. Our consideration would be he lived to the ages of the forefathers of Abraham and thereby most likely to be of their generation.

In this book lies the testimony of God given directly to Job, that Job may trust and believe God no matter what he had gone through, all was for a purpose.

It is said that the Book of Job is the book that deals with the great question; ‘Why do the righteous suffer?’

There is no doubt of the great suffering of Job and all that he had gone through.

Job 1:13-22

From verses 13 to 19 Job had lost it all, his possessions as well as his children.

²⁰ Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, ²¹ And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. ²²In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

But that was not all that had come upon Job, his affliction extended well beyond that of the sudden removal of the loss of his family and his great wealth. We recall that he was the greatest of all the men in the east, none were more righteous than he, and none more wealthy.

In the second chapter the devil seeks to the Lordagain and is granted license to now afflict his person, provided he keeps him alive.

And Job was indeed afflicted, boils from the soul of his feet to the crown of his head he suffered. Even taking to himself broken pieces of pottery to scrape himself allowing the boils to drain for some relief of the pain.

And then his wife comes to him, not to care for him or nurture him, but to torment him a little more with the suggestion that he “curse God and die” (Jb 2:9). But Job would not, he did indeed retain his integrity and did not sin with his lips, nor speak unadvisedly.

That is, until his three friends came.

And for thirty long chapters were the discourse between the three friends, and Job’s self-justification to continue.

It was not until Job began to impugn God with a level of unrighteousness for afflicting Job, that there arose a witness for God to answer Job and he answered him well.

Then, when the wrath of Elihu subsided and the answers he gave ended, God himself addressed Job. Turn with me to read a little of God’s direct answer to the already chastened Job;

Job 38:1

¹ Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, ² Whoisthis that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? ³ Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

⁴ Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. ⁵ Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? ⁶ Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; ⁷ When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

And for the next four chapters the Lord tells Job of the infinite distinction between God and man. Until Job, with utter humility of heart bows down before the Holy God and confesses in chapter 42:1

¹ Then Job answered the LORD, and said, ²I know that thou canst do everything, andthatno thought can be withholden from thee. ³ Whoishe that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. ⁴ Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. ⁵ I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. ⁶ Wherefore I abhormyself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Beloved, it is not going to be until we come to a right understanding of who we are speaking about when we speak of God, that we learn to trust him.

But when we pull God down to our level and think his thoughts are like our thoughts and his ways like our ways, we do ourselves a great disservice.

He says, all things work together for good the them that love God (Rom 8:28), so why do we think the purpose of our suffering is simply to afflict pain and grief for o good reason?

But beloved, when we trust God, knowing he is good and, his love so great that he sent his only begotten into the world to save sinners like you and I, then know he has your end in mind and that end is for good.

God declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: ¹¹ Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. (Isa 46:10)

The words the Lord has for Israel can be applied to those other sheep he has when he says;

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. ¹² Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. ¹³ And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jer 29:11-13)

The question “Why do the righteous suffer” is never answered in the book of Job, not directly anyhow.

The answer came only in a manner that would remind Job what man is and who God is, one is the creature, the other the creator.

• Only one of these has an eternal purpose in all he does.
• Only one of these can be trusted to do that which is good.
• And only one of these has the ability to fulfill all his promises. 

Lean not

⁵Trust 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. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It’s not until we are willing to acknowledge our limits that we begin to trust God.

We lean daily on our own understanding, we think our ideas right and our decisions righteous, our motives just, and our behavior justified.

There are three fundamental standards we generally employ when we refuse The Bible.

Emotion

Pragmatism

Experience. (Which I will address in the last point)

Emotion;

Emotion and feelings we think are fine standards, at least subconsciously, it has its origins in the heartand the heart should always be followed!

We will ignore the scripture passages that indicate that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9) and trust it’s not lying to us when we need an answer!

Emotion tells the man through sadness or joy, Anger or Happiness, Pleasure or Pain, Lust or Ambition, Pride or Fear,what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad.

We use our emotions to justify what we doand we excuse our emotionswhen what we do, should not have been done.

Not only that, but emotions are treated as absolute and subjective altogether;

they are absolutely correct when we employ them personally, but they are not to be employed in like manner by others.

What one person might do emotionally justified to another, cannot then be used by the other in response.

Let me explain;

Emotion was successfully employed by King Ahab for the acquisitionof the field of Naboth the Jezreelite in the book of 1^stKings 21. He desired the field that was next to his house even with tears in his eyes and felt he should have it.

Naboth however, felt he should not give it for, it was the land of his fathers.

But Ahab’s lovely wife Jezebel thought the feelings of her husband should trump the Property Rights of Naboth, so she had him killed and took his field, giving it to her Husband.

There you have it, emotion is absolute for one, but subjective for the other. A good standard when might makes right.

In todays terms you might employ it by waking in the morning and not feeling like going to work, this you justify in your head (Im tired, ive worked hard every other day, I don’t take sickies…much, the boss annoyed me yesterday etc), this is an absolute!

But if your Boss wakes up in the morning and does not feel like paying you….

Pragmatics

Pragmatics are the second standard: If a matter is practical in the limit of our own minds, then it should be employed.

By practical I mean that;

1. It can get me out of a troubling situation. for example;
   1. Abraham was promised a son in his Old age, Sarah thought this impractical and gave Bilhah, her hand maid to Abraham so she can bear a child by her.
      1. How did that work out for the nation of Israel? The arabs that surround the tiny nation largely claim their descent from Ishmael the son of Abraham and Bilhah.
      2. The daughters of Lot are another example, the children of that incestuous relationship (Moab and Ammon) are a thorn in the side of Israel to this day.
   2. Another example might be to avoid confrontation directly, desiring to be friends with everyone and loved by all, even if they are enemies of God;
      1. Jehoshaphat was the prime candidate for this, his relationship with that same Ahab we spoke of above, almost got him killed.

2. A pragmatic approach for a subjectively positive outcome;
   1. Give people what I think they want and the business should thrive.
      1. Morality or immorality, are taken as subjective ethics and largely based on emotion, this does not need to come into consideration, when our motive is subjective, what I think success looks like. (That’s what I thought)
         1. Many Churches are doing a wonderful job at this today, they take the preferential temperatureof their congregations and give them what they want. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church began this. (He has had to stand down due to a bunch of charges of Sexual misconduct, not the most practical outcome. But it’s what happens when your feelings justify what you do).

Majority of people want;

1. Less Bible – Check
2. Shorter Sermons – Check
3. Less hymn singing – Check
4. NO Gospel or Evangelism – Check
5. Contemporary and emotion driving Music – Check (this last one is important, you cannot drive emotion where you want if people think, you must use their feelings because their feelings come from their hearts and their hearts are always right J

In short, pragmatics are great to give short term solutions to many situations.

• If sharing the Gospel is likely to cause me trouble, I should keep silent and let everyone try to find out about Jesus some other way (Cross fingers they don’t go to hell for all eternity while I stay temporarily practical)
• If discipline in the Church or at home keeps the peace temporarily, this is good. Perhaps the long term outcome will be trouble for the children and the congregation, but peace and truth shall be in my days (2 Kings 20:19)
• If going into debt gets me what I want now, even though I am betting that to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant (Isa 56:12), should I not entertain it? What does the Bible really mean that the borrower is servant to the lender, if it gives me pleasure now?

And the list can go on and on and one.

King Solomon is the most ideal example I could think of in this matter.

Here is the man who has been given the greatest level of wisdom than any man before or after, save Jesus our Lord.

He had the wealth to employ all means he could and also, he had the Lord as his God with whom he had previously and loving communed with and worshipped.

But something had changed, no longer does he commune with God but has changed the focus of his wisdom;

¹⁶I communed with mine own heart, (What does the Bible say about the heart? Hmm) saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than alltheythat have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

He drank the wine, he builded great estates, he gave himself to all manner of entertainments, he accumulated riches, he laughed, and he played. He had more women than all who have gone before him.

None leaned more on their own understanding, than Solomon and how did it work out for him?

Well, his error lost the greater part of the Kingdom. Solomons wisdom brought folly when his trust shifted from his Lord to his own heart.

But the account does end well and proves his own proverb, “train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it”  (Prov 22:6)

Turn to the last chapter, chapter 12:13

¹³Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for thisisthe whole duty of man. ¹⁴ For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whetherit be good, or whether it be evil.

Beloved if our own understanding should do anything, it should bring us to Trust God and not ourselves. And to trust him with EVERYTHING and EVERY Decision.

Acknowledge Him

⁵Trust 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. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Our acknowledgement of God stems evidently when the decisions we make, in all our ways, acknowledge him.

When we choose the good and forsake the evil we acknowledge God.

When we call Darkness Dark and Light light, we acknowledge him.

When truth is not exchanged for a lie, we acknowledge the source of truth.

When evil is seen as evil, we acknowledge what GOOD is.

When we go to the supermarket and return the extra change a cashier mistakenly gave us, we acknowledge that there is a right and a wrong, a source for all right behavior.

When we give without expecting anything in return, we acknowledge an eternal purpose to life.

When we admit error or sin,we confess the Bible is true.

When we love our enemies, when we turn our cheek and give away our shirt, we acknowledge Christ Jesus.

In all our wayswe either acknowledge him, or disregard him.

The films we watch, the music we subject ourselves to. The clothing we wear, the jobs we take; beloved, even the days we work; we either acknowledge him or disregard him.

There was a man in the New Testament who acknowledge Jesus his Lord and was willing to suffer many things for Christ’s sake.

He was original persecutor of Christians, his manner against them was violent and the effect of his zeal was the dispersion of Christians from Jerusalem to areas far and wide in three continents, Asia, Africa and Europe.

But he had what we might call a “Damascus Road Experience”.

And now he tells of how he acknowledged Christ;

2 Corinthians 11:24-31

²⁴Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. ²⁵ Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; ²⁶Injourneyings often,inperils of waters,inperils of robbers,inperils bymine owncountrymen,inperils by the heathen,inperils in the city,inperils in the wilderness,inperils in the sea,inperils among false brethren; ²⁷In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. ²⁸ Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? ³⁰ If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. ³¹ The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

In All Paul went through he acknowledged that Jesus Christ was not only worthy of his life, but worthy of all the trials of life!

In Philippians Paul speaks of his former grandeur and consider what he thinks of it in the light of Christ;

Phil 3:4

⁴Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: ⁵ Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel,ofthe tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. ⁷ But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. ⁸ Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Nothing is of greater value than Christ and the telling to all of everlasting life through Christ.

Beloved, days are coming when being a Christian will not be seen as a good thing. Even now it is already mocked; quiet voices speak behind hands with underlying spiteagainst those who acknowledge Christ.

But there come days, very soon, that what is spoken about in darknesswill be shouted from rooftops, what is thought in the heartwill be revealed by the action. Christians will be called the enemies of the world by the entire world and not only half the world as it is today.

Will you still acknowledge Christ?

If you don’t acknowledge him in the small things today, are you confident you will acknowledge him in the big things tomorrow?

It is who we trust most that will determine what we acknowledge. Do we lean unto our own understandingor will we, in all our ways acknowledge him?

Directed Paths

⁵Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

When our reading of the Bible becomes the central most important daily activity, it is then that we are acknowledging our trust is NOT in our own understanding, but we Trust in the Lord.

Fears within are dispelled. We are comforted by the Lord through his word as we come to learn of his character, his nature, how he works in the lives of many. We are told that the comforter, the Holy Ghost is given to us, we have the “earnest of our inheritance” assuring us that heaven is our home.

People all over the world are desiring and seeking after the purpose and path of their lives, this is given us through the book of booksand NOT through Emotion, Pragmatics, or Personal Experiences (which I will touch on shortly)

God has promised that it is his word that will yield any fruit.

¹⁶All scriptureisgiven by inspiration of God, andisprofitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: ¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Tim 3:16)

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

¹⁰⁶ I have sworn, and I will performit, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. (Psalm 119:105-106)

…for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.(Ps 138:2b)

But in place of trusting Gods words to direct our paths we often trust a subjective replacement.

EXPERIENCE

We often think to use our experiences to know the direction of our paths.

And there is only ONE (subjective) arbiter we employ to determined, in our minds, if God is in it. PROSPERITY.

• If “God” prospers the way, then it is what the Lord wants of me.
• If “God” makes the way easy, opening doors, things go well, then it is the directed path of the Lord.
• If it does not hurt me, but makes me happy, then God is in it.
• If I make a lot of money, it is God that is blessing me.

WRONG WAY GO BACK!

Incredible isn’t it, I bet you never thought that deep within you, you actually believe the prosperity Gospel of modern apostates. Well there you go.

Edi’s Personal Experience.

CROSS ROADS, FORKS, Bendy tracks and potholes.

I too had thought that is the way to know Gods will for my life and what I was to do.

I spent ten years as a steel ball in a Pin Ball machine going from one experience to another, justifying each one as part of the right direction.

Only to end up in the ball trap between those two uplifting flippers called “Experience and Prosperity”

Beloved, tell me, why is it that we should think that when “good things” are happening it is of the Lord, but when “Bad things” are happening it is not Gods will?

Was the Apostle Paul not in Gods will when he suffered shipwreck, got scourged, beaten, stoned, suffered hunger?

Was Job not in Gods will when he suffered all he suffered while he suffered?

What of all those Christian martyrs that have gone before us, they died for the witness of Christ, were their paths not directed by the Lord?

Clearly then it is not our subjective interpretation of what we think is “good” that directs our path.

It is nothing more than his word in our lives.

Sure, the Bible will not tell you which job to go for, or who to marry, or which street is the quickest to your destination, or what music not to listen to, or who to share the Gospel with.

• But the Bible certainly does give a scope of work acceptable and pleasing to the Lord in line with your abilities. Some are in ministry directly now, some perhaps later and God will utilize what you learn now.

• The Bible does give a scope of whom it is acceptable to marry, within that range you may choose while seeking after the Lord.

• The Bible does teach that man is a thinking being, use your mind to know which is the right street.

• The use of the Bible gives discernment on things not directly written of, read it often and you will discern what not to listen to or what not to watch and play.

• The Bible tells that every creature should hear the Gospel, there is your answer. Pray the lord will give you love and courage.

When we trust him enough to acknowledge him in all our ways, he directs our path.

⁵Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)