Trusting Jesus

(Based on Proverbs 3:5-6)


"TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART."

When you become a Christian, you accept Jesus as both your Savior and Lord.  He is your Savior because He died for the sins that separated you from God.  He is your Lord because He leads the direction of your life. But many Christians struggle with turning their lives over to the Lord.  They have trouble trusting Him. But these verses first encourage us to trust the Lord and then shows us how to turn over everything over and allow Him to lead us.

"LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING."

It all starts with acknowledging the Lord's ability to lead us.  Jesus said that He is, "The Alpha and the Omega" (Revelation 1:8).  That means as God, He can see the beginning of all things as clearly as He can see the ending. With this knowledge He is uniquely qualified to lay out a plan for your life.  Jesus isn't making up things as He goes along.  He knows where each and every step you take will lead.

"IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM."

So we understand that Jesus has the ability to direct us, now we must apply that knowledge to our everyday lives. "In all your ways acknowledge Him", means including Jesus, seeking His will, in all aspects of your life - not just the big decisions.  This is done by first praying for His leadership, then reading the Bible (What does the Bible say about a decision you are about to make? God communicates to you through His Word - read James 1:22), and finally seeing what circumstances He put before you to influence your decision (That could mean advice from a friend or hearing a message at church or events could take place that lead you one way or the other).

"AND HE WILL MAKE YOUR PATH STRIAGHT."

Life is hard to understand sometimes.  Things happen to us every day that make us ask, "Why is it like this?"  What you must remember is that things don't make sense to us because of our perspective.  We are seeing life one event at a time.  So often, life seems to be a set of random events that aren't connected. But, as we learned about above, the Lord knows how everything will turn out. From His perspective He sees how events are connected and promises us that, "all thing work together for the good of those who love God" (Romans 8:28).  Some lives are harder than others. I don't know why that is - only Jesus knows that - but I do know that no matter what life brings you won't be going through it alone.  Jesus will be with you every step of the way.