We like to say that we trust God with all our hearts. But do we? Really? When we’re in the middle of chaos or trouble, do we resort to leaning on our understanding rather than on God’s wisdom? Let’s learn how to trust God with all your heart.
Above is a message I gave on Proverbs 3:1-10. Below is an adaptation of the message. May you learn how to trust God with all your heart.
“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. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil.”
Proverbs 3:5-7
One way to write this verse upon the tablet of our hearts so that we remember to focus on God is to pray it. We might pray something like the following:
LORD, God Almighty, You control the sun, the moon, and the stars. You have blessed me beyond measure. I trust in You with all my heart. LORD, I don’t understand the future or how to make the wisest decision. You alone are wise. Direct my choices and my path. My wisdom is foolishness. I choose to fear You and depart from evil. Help me, LORD, to honor Your name and bring You glory. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
Go With the Flow
I had the privilege of accompanying university students to Italy several years ago. One of our adventures was an 8-mile bike ride up to the hills outside of Florence.
We began our trek through crazy traffic. Our guide told us to follow him, “go with the flow” and not worry about the cars coming within inches of us. In other words, trust him and the drivers.
Each time a car got close to me, my front tire wobbled, and I had to stop and try to start again. The students were also excited and came within inches of me. Repeatedly! Once, I crashed into a stone wall.
Four miles up the hills at more than a 60-degree angle. Front tire wobbling, crashing, restarting, walking, and retrying. Have you tried to start your bike ride at a 60-degree angle?
I wasn’t trusting my guide’s advice. I was trusting in my knowledge of how crazy Italian drivers are—how they drive every which way.
I hadn’t given my body, my trust to “going with the flow” as Bill had instructed us. I hadn’t trusted him with all my heart. I was leaning on my own wisdom, which was flawed.
Trust God With All Your Heart
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart …”
Warren Wiersbe writes, “The word translated ‘trust’ in verse 5 means ‘to lie helpless, facedown.’ It pictures a servant waiting for the master’s command in readiness to obey, or a defeated soldier yielding himself to the conquering general.” (Warren Wiersbe)[1]
Abraham trusted God.
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Hebrews 11:8
God appeared to Abram in Mesopotamia and told him to leave his family and go where God told him. Abram was to possess a land that God would show him.
Abram took his family and father to Haran and settled there. Partial obedience. When his father died, God told Abram to start walking.
This second time, Abram trusted God even though he didn’t know where he was going.
Abram was 75 when he set out for the land God had promised him, not knowing where he was going.
Can you see Abram and Sarai (sa ri)? Right foot, left foot, God You lead me.
Trusting God to lead.
Paul writes about this trust as a complete surrender – a living sacrifice to God in Romans 12:1.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
Romans 12:1
Presenting our bodies as an offering to God. Our service as an offering to God is our thoughts, words, and actions as an offering to God.
Abram and Sarai offered their entire lives to God. They trusted God and stepped forward to join Him in the work He had prepared for them.
Don’t Trust Your Understanding
“… And lean not on your own understanding …”
Abram and Sarai had a comfortable life in Haran when God told them to trust Him. I wonder what their conversations were like as they packed up their belongings and told their servants what God had told them to do.
The world’s understanding would be “You’re comfortable in Haran. You have a nice life. Why would you want to follow this God we don’t know?”
But this was the second time God spoke to Abram. God’s promise was amazing.
“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:2-3
Let’s learn how to trust God with all our heart. Let’s possess His promises. Right foot, left foot, God You lead us to the promise.
Paul continued his plea to the Romans in Romans 12:2
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:2
Walk in God’s Wisdom
Abram and Sarai started walking in God’s wisdom.
We can walk in God’s wisdom. The Holy Spirit is waiting for us to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. When we do that and let the Holy Spirit renew our thinking, He will give us the understanding we need, not the world’s understanding.
The world’s understanding is distorted.
Bill, our tour guide was awesome. He identified me as a hazard and told me to follow right behind him, especially in the traffic. He also told one student who rode her bike within inches of me to drop back behind.
“Don’t look at the traffic, Karen. Look at my tires and follow right in their tracks.”
Deep breath.
Periodically, Bill looked back to see if I was following in his path. He told me to adjust the gears when necessary. As long as I followed his path and adjusted the gears as he told me to, my tires did not wobble, and the traffic did not bother me.
Focus on Jesus
When Peter stepped out of the boat and into the water during the storm, as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on the water. When Peter looked at the storm around him, he began to sink into the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:25-33).
That’s what I was doing. Every time I looked at the traffic, I wobbled or crashed, many times having to walk for a while.
Bill had no idea the lesson he was teaching me.
Struggles, crashes, and steep hills help us refocus on Jesus.
In my head, I knew this principle and thought I was practicing it. I’d been through storms before. I’d climbed hills steeper than these. But when I was placed in the midst of chaotic traffic, I wobbled because I did not have my focus in the right place.
Acknowledge God
“In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.“
“Acknowledge” God. Yāḏaʿ [yaw daa], to learn to know, to know by experience, to know intimately. Trusting God with all our heart.
And what is the promise? God will direct or guide us in His path, in His plans for us. We can trust in Him, lay our lives before His feet, and allow Him to lead us.
Genesis 12 tells us that Abram came to the land and pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai. There he built an altar to God and began to call on the name of God.
He responded to God’s leading and blessings by building an altar and calling on the name of the LORD.
Walk With God
What path are you on today? Abraham and Sarah strayed from God’s path when they went to Egypt, but when they returned and called on the name of the LORD, they started walking with God again.
God leads us like a shepherd leads his sheep. Psalm 23 tells us that the Lord is our shepherd and that He causes us to lie down in green pastures and leads us to still waters. In John 10, Jesus tells us that He is the Good Shepherd and that those who trust in Him are His sheep. Jesus leads us in the way everlasting.
Who is leading you?
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil.”
Proverbs 3:7
A second time, we’re told not to trust in our understanding or wisdom. We have the world’s eyes, don’t we? We’re fallen creatures, and we need God’s direction, God’s wisdom.
Don’t Fear Man
Abram trusted God’s promise of land, a son, nations coming from his loins, blessings to all families.
Yet, when a famine came to the land, he and Sarai packed up and went to Egypt. They didn’t ask God what He wanted them to do. The wisdom of the world told them to move where there was plenty of food.
In Egypt, Abram got scared and told Sarai, “You’re beautiful and I’m afraid Pharoah might kill me so he can place you in his harem. Say that you’re my sister, after all, you are my half-sister.”
Sarai obeyed Abram, and Pharoah took her into his harem. But God protected her and sent her back to Abram.
They left Egypt and went back to where they had called on the name of the Lord. Again, Abram, called on the name of the Lord. But with Abram and Sarai was a reminder of Egypt – Hagar. Hagar was Sarai’s Egyptian maidservant.
God had promised Abram and Sarai a son. Years went by, and no son. They were both too old to have children.
A common practice was to give maidservants to the husbands, so the families could grow. Sarai talked Abram into lying with Hagar. She got pregnant, and Sarai got upset with Abram and harassed Hagar so much that she ran away, but the Angel of the Lord told her to return to Sarai.
And the Angel of the LORD said to her: “Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
Genesis 16:11 -12
Hagar’s son, Ishmael, became the father of the Arabs. There’s still trouble in the world between the sons of Ishmael and Isaac (Abram and Sarai’s promised son).
Wisdom in Abram’s eyes got him into trouble. Wisdom in Sarai’s eyes, got her into trouble.
Fear the Lord
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 9:10
Abram and Sarai were taking baby steps in the fear of the Lord. They left Egypt. In the Bible, Egypt serves as a picture of sin and slavery. Egyptians served many gods but not Yahweh.
Abram and Sarai returned to calling on the name of the Lord. They focused on God, cried out to Him, and honored Him in the fear of the LORD.
When we fear the Lord, we experience mercy and truth that leads us to trust the Lord with all our hearts. We reject our own understanding and proclaim the goodness of God. He is our shepherd and leads us in His wise path to eternal life with Him.
The Christian life is strenuous, like a race, like a bike ride going straight up the hill in the middle of Italian traffic. We wobble and crash. Panting for breath, we walk for a while. We get back on the bike and start pumping.
We refocus, and eventually, we get there … with help … with wise guidance.
Focus On God
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”
To trust like that we must focus on who the Lord is. He is full of mercy and truth as mentioned in verse 3, “Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.”
The word for mercy is hesed. It corresponds to the Greek word agape in the New Testament. It’s often referred to in the Old Testament as “lovingkindness, goodness, and loyalty to a covenant.”
This is God’s love for His people. It is self-sacrificing, eternal, and unconditional. It’s God attaching Himself to us for all time. Mercy, hesed.
Mercy and truth. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life.
Write mercy and truth on our hearts. When we have mercy and truth on our hearts, we can trust in the Lord with all our hearts, can’t we?
God is near us, just like He was near Abram and Sarai. He’s ready to remind us to fix our eyes on Him. He’s there to prevent crashes, but if we get our eyes off Him, and onto what we think is our wisdom, sometimes, we crash. When we do, He’s right there, ready to take part of our load and guide us back to His path.
Jesus is right by our side, ensuring that we get to the top of the mountain. It still takes effort. It still takes a bit of huffing and puffing. With Jesus, though, we’ll reach the mountain top.
May you trust God with all your heart and allow Him to lead you. May you rejoice in God’s love for you and be eternally attached to Him.
[1] Warren Wiersbe.”David Guzik Study Guide on Proverbs 3.” BlueLetterBible.org. https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/proverbs/proverbs-3.cfm?a=631001
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