Posted by Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (NJKV)
Trusting in the waiting room is a difficult thing to do, but God calls us to it. He doesn’t just call us to trust, but to FULLY trust and lean into Him. When our path is not clear, God calls us to simply seek Him first, acknowledge him, put our faith and assurance in him, and trust that He will straighten/direct our path.
Trust is defined as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. Or “one in which confidence is placed”, or “dependence on something future or contingent: hope.” (merriam-webster dictionary). We are called to trust in the Lord – place our assured reliance, confidence, dependence, hope on God’s character, ability, strength and truth. How much? ALL of our heart. ALL of our thinking, ALL of our emotions, ALL of our logic. ALL of it.
We are not to lean into our own thinking, our own way of viewing the circumstance, but to trust God’s bird-eye view of our situation. Our own understanding is often flawed, it is tainted by sin, so it is not really that dependable. Our own thinking eventually leads back to self interest and gain and often has past experience as a lens that we see through. Trauma, loss, pain, emotions…all those things that are inevitably a part of our experience, make our thinking less clear so it makes sense that God gives us the advice to trust in his understanding and knowledge and not our own.
So what does it mean to acknowledge Him in all our ways? The NIV says ‘in all your ways submit to Him’. Acknowledge means (again according to the dictionary, putting God into the definition), to recognise the rights, authority, or status of God in our lives, to recognise or admit our sin and His goodness, and to express gratitude for the gift of grace, salvation, peace, forgiveness that He offers. It means to have God recognised in all our ways, all our doings, all our interactions, all our experiences. To submit to God means to hand over, yield, to voluntarily give over my inferior will, selfish desires and prideful authority to God. We do this with humility, trust and a willingness to align with God’s purpose for us. It is at this point that we remember He is our Creator, He knows us inside and out, and what is best for us. He also has a divinely orchestrated plan for us to influence and encourage those we meet along our path of life.
So when we are at a crossroad, or if our path is dim or ‘overgrown’, or if we have questions, wonderings about our purpose and direction, give it to God. Spend time reading His Word, soaking in His presence – not necessarily for an answer, but to simply be in the presence of God, developing a rich relationship with Him. Then we will be able to ‘hear’ him more clearly, and to continue to be transformed from the inside out replacing our desires with His. Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Transformation and change comes from within our thinking, and when we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, our minds will slowly be transformed – the more we spend reading the Word and praying in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the more our thinking will be transformed.
The challenge is there – spend some quality, quiet time with God reading His Word. Start somewhere like the Psalms – 91 is a great one. Or find a reading plan in a Bible app (like You Version), to literally get you into the Word. Make that space quiet, free from distractions, journal if you need, or simply sit in the space of the Spirit and allow Him to direct your thoughts.
Be blessed, I pray that God will make your path straight as you fully submit to Him.
Life by the Word 