In All Our Ways

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths. [Proverbs 3:5-6, ESV]

I’m sure you’ve heard or read this verse before—you may even have it memorized. And if you’re like me, you’ve tried to apply it to all of your life decisions: the small ones (“What socks should I wear?”), the big ones (“Which car should I buy?”), and especially the super-big ones (“Should I marry? If so, whom?”). But, if you’re like me, you understand what the verse means, you believe it to be true, and you earnestly desire to put it into practice—yet the ‘how to’ often leaves you scratching your head: “Well, I would ‘trust in the Lord with all [my] heart,’and I wouldn’t ‘lean on [my] own understanding’ if he’d just tell me what he wants me to do!”

Ever been there? Me too. Our response (“What does he want me to do?”) is right because the verse provokes it. Look again at verse 5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Right off we notice that the Lord must have an alternative to “[our] own understanding,” which we must then “trust in” or “lean on” instead of “[our] own understanding.” So there’s a void to be filled: “Ok, what’s is his alternative to my ‘own understanding’? How do I find it out?” Here is where the problem comes in—too often we neglect the answer(s) he’s already given us to 99.7% of our life decisions—small, big, and super-big. In 1545, Martin Luther said “Let the man who would hear God speak, read Holy Scripture.” God can and does speak through special, direct ways today (such as dreams, visions, angelic visitations, prophecy, etc.), but his primary means of speaking to us today, far more often, is through his Holy Word. (Psalm 119, written by David, who was “a man after God’s own heart,” and whose “heart was perfect toward God,” ought to convince any skeptics.) So the Word of God is the Will of God. I appreciate how William Walker put it in his hymn, How Firm a Foundation:
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled.

So let’s look at the ‘how?’ The very next verse, verse 6, gives us something to apply immediately: In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Solomon’s main idea in this passage (vv. 1-10) is, at bottom, “Conform all your ways to all God’s ways and life will go well for you.” So what are “all our ways” Here’s a list of “ways” for us to work through, one by one, to determine whether we’re truly acknowledging God and following his ways in them: “in all your (work activity, financial management, relationships, entertainment choices, eating/sleeping/exercise habits, studies, conversations, devotional life)acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

How do I acknowledge him in these areas? Dig out the principles in God’s word, and live by them. They may not always make sense to us, but this is how we “trust in the Lord with all [our] heart, and lean not on [our] own understanding.”

Recommendations
The Book of Proverbs. Many have benefited from reading one proverb each day of the month. Reading the entire book of wisdom, of the wisest man on earth, every single month, can’t help but grow your wisdom.
William Walker, How Firm a Foundation [hymn]
The Navigators’ Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan [free download | pdf, outlook]
Garry Friesen, Decision-Making and the Will of God. [book] Dr. Friesen presents a convincing alternative to the traditional view of discerning God’s will for your life. It’s long, but a surprisingly quick read. As always, read with discernment.