My Understanding

Proverbs 3:5-8

I think I just missed my turn. In 5:00 p.m. In Memphis traffic, this realization can ruin your evening. My thirty minute drive home became an hour-long excursion as my GPS said my destination did not exist and my mom reassured me on the phone that if I took a left at the next light I would eventually recognize my surroundings.

The feeling of being on the wrong path is even worse when it involves the way you approach other people. Have you ever realized that you’ve been on the wrong side of an argument? Or that your reaction to a situation was out of line?  Have you ever tried to figure out a riddle only to hear the answer and realize that you were obsessing over the wrong detail?

Have you heard this one before? Mary’s father had five daughters. The first four were named:

Na
Ne
Ni
No

Most likely, what is the name of the fifth daughter?

Were you the kid in class that confidently answer “Nu!” only to be laughed at because the answer is “Mary?”

With every new dawn, we have the opportunity to trust God anew. Another familiar passage from Proverbs is:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths. Don’t consider yourself to be wise; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Let’s break this down into manageable chunks and make certain we don’t take these verse for granted simply because we memorized them in children’s church.

1. Trust in the Lord will all your heart. Does that seem like an easier-said-than-done statement to you? I can trust the Lord when I see Him at work, or when I get to take an action also, but to trust Him even in the most desperate of times when all my strength has failed?
2. Do not rely on your own understanding. Okay, Lord, I got it –this passage was written with me in mind. I have a lot of understanding, and the little bit that I lack, I can find online, thank you very much. My understanding of the situation is perfectly clear. Ever feel that way? But our view of things is not God’s view. He sees the big picture of how it all works together. We are stuck in time and only see events unravel a second at a time.
3. Think about the Lord in all your ways. All means all. We don’t just think about God when a situation is rough or when we need guidance. We need to think about Him in everything – the big and the little decisions. From the moment we get out of bed and decide what to wear until we put our heads back on the pillows at night, we need to keep the Lord at the forefront of our minds.
4. Don’t consider yourself to be wise. Pretty much a reiteration of the last two points. You know, for those of us who need repetition in order to learn a lesson.
5. Fear the Lord. Not in a – I’m so scared – kind of way. We are to respect the Lord because He is the Lord of all Creation. He created the heavens and earth, holds the world in existence, and conquered death – He is worthy of our respect and praise. We are not to come to Him flippantly and rattle off the same list of wants that we would have left for Santa Claus.
6. Turn away from evil. Resist. Flee. Have nothing to do with. Ignore. Take evasive maneuvers. Do not touch, poke, prod, stroke, or have any type of contact with evil.

The promises the Lord will keep:

1. He will guide you on the right paths. 
2. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.

 I’m probably still guaranteed to make wrong turns when I drive, but those aren’t necessarily the paths being described here. The Proverbs is referring to keeping us on the straight and narrow path that leads to life rather than meandering on the broad path that leads to destruction.