Heart Matters
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5
I’m sure many of you are very familiar with this Scripture verse. It’s a verse we turn to for comfort, to renew our minds when we face unforeseen circumstances or have to make difficult decisions. Many of us have this passage memorized so we can recall it with the quickness when the opportunity calls for it.
I believe the meaning of this verse is plain and clear. Proverbs chapter 3 speaks of the importance of having a heart for the things of God. Things such as obedience, trust, mercy and humility. It’s about wisdom and understanding, knowledge and honor. It’s a Proverb which beautifully conveys the blessings we receive when we walk closely with the Lord. It’s about having a heart that desires God Himself and realizing when we do, everything else will fall into place. In Proverbs 3 we can find both comfort and confidence. We can know that if we walk rightly with God we don’t have to try to figure it all out. Instead, we’ll be able to trust Him even with the most challenging and confusing situations. And once we get this, we can then let others know where we stand and what foundation we’re standing upon. Once we get this, we can acknowledge that we’re trusting our God through our actions, the way we react or respond to adversity. Yes once we get it and do this, we can know that He will direct our paths.
But what does it really mean to acknowledge Him in all our ways? Does it mean we can only acknowledge Him when we respond to our life challenges in faith? Has our understanding of acknowledging Him been relegated only to the realm of showing others how we are getting it right? Or are we also able to acknowledge Him in our ways by allowing others to see our process, our journey, our struggle? Hmmmm? I’ve been thinking about this because I’m always fully aware of one of the biggest mistakes Christians make in their walk of faith (because it’s a mistake I’ve made and one I lived in for quite a number of years in my Christian walk). It is the mistake of thinking we have to come across in a certain specific way as we interact with others, both believers and non-believers. For some reason many Christians believe the lie that once we become Christians we are no longer human. When in all actuality, the Lord is okay with our humanity (He joined us in it and die for us because of it). We fail to understand that although the Lord desires for us to be holy, He never wants us to live as hypocrites. He’s okay with our process – how we sometimes take two steps forward and then one step back. He knows that at times we will get tripped up, stumble, and even fall and yet He’s always there willing and able to pick us up. So why then do we feel we need to act and live as though we now have it all together? Why can we feel as though we have to portray an image of perfection to others? Why do we fall to the deception of self-righteousness and the travesty of hypocrisy. Why? I believe because it is a lie of the enemy. Remember satan loves to try to pervert anything the Lord creates. And so he want us to believe the real change we feel as new creatures in Christ is actually the result of a superior status. He wants us to believe that since we now know the truth, we now also have it all figured out. He wants us to live before others as though we’ve already fully arrived as opposed to letting them see our journey. The devil wants us to do this because living in such a way hinders the Gospel from being communicated and reflected in and through our very lives. God is in the journey. We haven’t already arrived but are being sanctified day by day. When we transparently share our weaknesses and willingly expose our struggles, it is then that the world is given the opportunity to see Christ being lifted up. When we acknowledge HIM in all our ways it is then others can witness the presence and the power of Christ. Jesus is okay with us being honest about where we are because it is only then that He can take us where He wants us to go. He is The Truth, so it’s time to get moving!
I shared that this is an area I now greatly guard my heart against. In my zeal as a new believer and also largely due to my ignorance I did some major damage as I determined to win everyone to Christ. Although I was definitely saved and changed forever when I came to faith in the Lord, I desperately tried to live the Christian life on my own-in my own power and through my own strength. I know you’ve heard it before “it is impossible to live the Christian life on your own.” That’s true! Just as we depended completely on Christ to save us from eternal death, we also need to completely depend on Him to help us live for Him. However, for some reason (probably because we are desperately prone to “works”) we determine what the Christian life should look like (based on our denominations, our Christian circle, preferences, etc.) and then we set about trying our best to convince everyone around us (and ourselves) that this is the life we live. We start to adhere to a certain set of rules of “do’s and don’ts” and we begin to require that everyone else around us do the same-or else. Or else experience our judgement, our rejection, or our wrath. To our shame we couldn’t be portraying anything more further from the love of Christ. To our shame we emphasize “law” and our lives glorify “works” instead of grace. Now do you see why the enemy loves for us to fall into this trap? And yet this sentiment is rampant in the Christian community and many of us seem oblivious to it.
I believe we engage in this deceptive behavior because we enjoy the checklist and the self appointed accountability. We believe we should act and behave a certain way and when we do so, we can give ourselves a huge pat on the back. We can so get caught up in this behavior especially as so many out there have unknowingly fallen into the same pit, affirming and agreeing with us along the way. We become like the blind leading the blind, losing our way and veering off the path the Lord would have us walk. It’s grievous, but there’s hope. All one needs to do is examine their hearts to see if they’ve fallen prey to pretentious Christian behavior. We can pray and ask The Lord about it. We can ask other well balanced believers. We can look for the evidence of these three simple letters: J-O-Y! Do you have joy? If not check yourself before you wreck yourself (yaaaay 80’s! (I can be so inappropriate, I know). Your lack of joy is a red flag waving vigorously to let you know something is amiss in your Christian walk. You see, when your heart is right there is freedom. You are free to love and receive love, free to correct and be corrected, free to live holy and free to fail. Whenever we shift from trusting Jesus to trusting ourselves our JOY will begin to flee. Whenever we start to live out of order our joy diminishes.
“Acknowledge Him in all your ways.” Acknowledge Him in your strengths but don’t neglect to acknowledge Him in your weaknesses. Let others know – yes you share some of the same struggles that they do and then give Him all the credit He’s due as you proclaim that you have purposed in your heart to depend on Him to see you through. Acknowledge Him in your successes but don’t forget to acknowledge Him in your failures. Share with the world the lessons He teaches you through your failures. Let them know He is the One who picks you up each and every time! Acknowledge Him as you testify how you’ve overcome, but never fail to acknowledge Him when it comes to your sin. It’s okay to reveal to others when you allowed yourself to fall into temptation and sinned. Jesus knows all about it-He paid the price for it. Share with those around you how because of HIM you were able to own your sin, acknowledge your sin, repent of your sin, and be forgiven of your sin. Show the world how the Lord is changing you and causing you to desire to sin less and less and less. Acknowledge Him in all your ways to reveal that you’re not perfect but that The LORD is perfecting you! Acknowledge Him by showing in every way that ultimately your faith is in Him for everything.
If you walk rightly with the Lord, you will be able to acknowledge Him in all your humanly ways. Remember what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:12-13 “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” If the apostle Paul didn’t consider himself to have apprehended or to have already been perfected, why should we?
Interesting Fact: When asked the secret of his success, George Washington Carver responded “The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible: “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”
HEART TO HEART: IN ALL THY WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM SO YOU CAN MOVE FORWARD AND WALK THE PATHS HE’S DIRECTING YOU TO