Do not lean on your own understanding.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.”(Proverbs 3:5)
There are so many things in this world that we can’t understand with our own understanding. To say one of them, I would like to say "the heart of a person." The reason is because the human heart is not really understandable by our own understanding. In particular, when we look at our hearts as Christians, we see that sometimes we seem to love God with all our hearts, but at other times, when our hearts of love for God cools down and faces adversity, we see that we complain and resent against God with our hearts and lips. It doesn't make sense with our understanding. What makes it more difficult to understand is that our heart become proud and consider ourselves wise (Prov. 3:7) when we receive praise and approve from people as we humbly serve God, give glory to Him and boast Him. We really don't understand. As such, our hearts are so easily altered that we are thinking evil in the sight of God, taking an evil posture, and doing evil words and actions. Nevertheless, we don’t view evil as evil. What we really don’t understand is our hearts. Another thing that I don’t understand from my understanding is our Christian faith. We say that we love Jesus but we aren’t obeying His word. We say that we believe in Jesus, and that Jesus is our shepherd who makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside quite waters (Ps. 23:2). But we don't even think about the fact that He allows us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death (v. 4). Also, while our hearts like to be blessed by God, they hate adversity (Job 2:10). Our hearts, which cannot be understood by our own understanding, are spiritually picky. Our hearts like prosperity but hate pain. We like abundance, but we hate poverty. We love blessings, but we hate disaster. Our spiritually picky heart likes God, who is rich in love and grace, but doesn’t like God who is holy and just. Our hearts like God who is merciful, compassionate and good, but doesn’t like God who pours out His wrath and disciplines. With this mind and faith, should we continue to lean on our own understanding?
It is God's will or God's command that we don’t understand more and more with our own understanding. In 1 Kings 17, God commanded Elijah to go and hide himself by the brook Cherith and drink of the brook (vv. 3-4) in a situation where there is no dew and rain. This God's command is a command that we can’t understand with our own understanding. How could God command Elijah to go to the brook and drink of the brook when there was no rain? If it didn't rain, then the brook would dry up. This God's command would have been a command that Elijah couldn’t obey if he had relied on his own understanding. Eventually, since it didn’t rain on the land, the brook dried up after a while (v. 7). Then, God sent Elijah to a widow who lives in Zarephath. God commands Elijah to arise, go to Zarephath, which belonged to Sidon, and to stay there (v. 9). God made the widow there, who was about to make a last meal for herself and her son and then die (v. 12), to provide for Elijah (v. 9). Is this command of God really understandable through our human minds? No. How could God command Elijah to go to the house of the widow who was about to prepare the last meal for herself and her son and then die? If we lean on our own understanding, we can’t obey this command of God. Despite the difference between God's thoughts and our thoughts, there are countless times when we live on this earth by putting Creator God’s higher thoughts into the frame of our creatures’ lower thoughts. As a result, we often fail to trust God completely and rely on ourselves in doubt. Also, we aren’t acknowledging God in all our ways (Prov. 3:6). What should we do? I would like to take three lessons from Proverbs 3:1, 3, 5:
First, we must obey God's commandments with our hearts.
Look at Proverbs 3:1 – “My son, do not forget my teaching, But let your heart keep my commandments.” We must remember God's teaching and keep God's commandments with our hearts. Although God's commandments cannot be understood with our own understanding, we must obey His commandments by faith and act. Although we cannot understand why God has given us an incomprehensible commandment with our own understanding, how deep, broad, and high the incomprehensive will of God, we must obey His commandment.
Second, we must engrave God's love and truth on the plate of our hearts.
Look at Proverbs 3:3 – “Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.” The more we obey God's command by faith, the more God's truth will be engraved on our hearts. The more we obey God's word with faith in the God of truth, the deeper the word of God is engraved on our hearts. And the more we obey the word of truth by faith, the more we will experience God's love in obedience. Not only we realize God's love in the very fact that God gave us the word of truth, but also as we obey the word of truth we engrave His love on our hearts. And when God's love and truth are engraved on our hearts, we can trust God with all our hearts.
Third and last, we must trust in God with all our hearts.
Look at Proverbs 3:5 – “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.” As we obey God's commandments in our hearts (v. 1), and as we engrave God's love and truth on the plate of our hearts (v. 3), we realize how foolish it is to lean on our own understanding. Therefore, we don’t lean on our own understanding and trust in God with all our hearts (v. 5). And we acknowledge God in all our ways (v. 6). Then we will experience the God who makes our paths straight (v. 6).
In all things in the world, there are more countless things that we don’t and can’t understand with our own understanding than we understand. Especially among the countless things that don’t understand, there are so many times when we don’t understand God's will. Nevertheless, when we obey God's commandments with all our heart, believing that we are in God's will, then God will engrave His love and truth on our hearts. And when God engraves God's love and truth on our hearts, we will be able to trust in God with all our hearts. By acknowledging God in all our ways, I hope and pray that He will make our paths straight.