Acnowledge God's Desire

Proverbs 3:5–8 (NKJV) ⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; ⁶In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. ⁷Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.  ⁸It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.

Solomon’s challenge here is to “Trust in the Lord”. This trust is characterized by total commitment in the phrase “with all your heart.”  When I am trusting God I am not reliant on my own wisdom, I don’t “lean on my own understanding.”  Rather, I become fully reliant on God “acknowledging Him” and choosing to do what is pleasing to God.  Our own pride causes us to “be wise in our own eyes.”  Yet, when I “fear the Lord” I will quit my sinful ways and turn to following His plan for my life.  Solomon here is calling for us to live in absolute obedience and surrender in every area of our lives.  Then we experience the “straight paths” or “directed Paths” which are in opposition to the crooked ways of the wicked or perverse.

I cannot try to live my life half for my own desires and half trusting in the Lord.  I have to get the same attitude as the psalmist in Psalm 119:113 (ESV) “¹¹³I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.”   Christ challenged us with this in Matthew 6:24 (ESV) “²⁴“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”  And then again in Mark 12:30 (ESV) “³⁰And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The wise person is characterized by continuous contemplation of God and a ready observance of his will, not only in the great issues of life but also in day-to-day routine. No matter is too small for God’s attention. To paraphrase one commentator, it is self-idolatry to think we can carry on even the most ordinary matters without his counsel.^[1]

The final challenge in these verses is to “Fear the Lord and depart from evil.”  To revere the Lord and avoid evil gives us a second contrast between our human wisdom and God’s wisdom.  Unfortunately, when many people seek counsel they go and find counselors who will tell them what they want to hear.  It is rare to find individuals who will seek out counsel based upon the principles of God’s Word.

But for those who will be follow God’s desire and fear Him they are promised: God’s direction, health, and strength.  How many miss out on these blessing because they will not be obedient?

 May your life be one that is characterized as “Trusting in the Lord!”

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/user/churchoflittleton  FW # 58

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^[1] Jim Newheiser, Opening Up Proverbs (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2008), 61.

Acknowledge God's Direction

As we have begun the New Year many have made resolutions and are striving to change their lives in some way.  During the next few days we will look at ways we need to acknowledge God in the New Year.  The principles are taken from Proverbs 3.

Proverbs 3:1–4 (NKJV) ¹My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; ²For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. ³Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, ⁴And so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.

We need to acknowledge God’s direction or learn God’s truth.   The challenge in verse one is “do not forget my law”.  To forget would mean that I am not mindful or I do not have a proper response to God’s law.  The first step in not being forgetful is to know, to be “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:9-10) and His Word.  God reveals his law, which is His will, in His Word.  Practically I acknowledge God’s law by reading His Word, putting myself under the teaching of His Word, working to memorize His Word. (Psalm 119:11)   The positive side of this challenge is “Let your heart keep my commandments.”  When our heart, that is our mind and will, is set on being obedient to God’s commands we will want to know these commandments by heart.  Our desire to obey will drive us to want to know God’s Word.

In verse two the writer continues “do not let loyal love and faithfulness leave you.”  This “mercy” or “loyal love” is “fidelity to obligations rising from relationships.”  And “truth” or “faithfulness” is that which can be relied on because of stability.  But when these words are put together they are “faithful love” combined these individual words give us a further meaning.  The “binding” and “writing” is stressing that the teaching become second nature, a regular part of the life.  The ramifications of this terminology are that the disciple is actually subject to the Lord, not the teacher, and that the requisite “discipline” is respect and obedience for the Lord and his teaching and not merely for a human instructor^[1]

With these principles come some promises which are length of days, long life, and peace.  One does not have to talk with too many individuals to realize that people desire long life, but even more than that they desire the life they have to be peaceful, yet how many are willing to get to know God’s Word so that they might experience it?  The second promise is to have favor and a good name by God and man.  An individual may have a good reputation before man, but this goes beyond that to having a life of integrity before God and being pleasing in His eyes.  These blessings are in opposition to the individual who is not faithful who is promised in Prov. 13:15, “The way of the unfaithful is hard.”

 

Our hope is that you might Acknowledge God’s Direction in this New Year!

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/user/churchoflittleton    FW # 57

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^[1] Allen P. Ross, "Proverbs" In , in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1991), 916.

The Perfecting Storm of a Sovereign King

I have been preaching verse by verse through Matthew since last Christmas.  Last week found us in Matthew 14 and part of the passage dealt with the fact that Jesus commanded his disciples to go into a boat at night and head out to sea.  They ended up in the midst of a storm.  I quoted Warren Wiersbe and noted that sometimes God uses “Storms of Correction” and other times God uses “Storms of Perfection”.  As the disciples had faced a storm to bring them growth in their relationship with Christ, Jonah had faced a storm to bring him to obedience to God. To many who knew the events of the past week they might have said we had a “week from Hell.”  Yet, knowing that we serve a SOVEREIGN GOD we know that He lead us through just what He had planned.

As SOVEREIGN OVER ALL, we knew going to court (to maintain guardianship of three children we have cared for two years) that ultimately it was not the judge who would render judgment.  For as Solomon said the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord (Prov. 21:1) surely the ruling of a judge is only allowed by His Sovereign direction.

As SOVEREIGN PROVIDER, he knew our car would break down and it would have to be left in town for repairs.  He knew a friend would be in town to provide us a ride home.  He knew and directed someone to notice and drop enough for the repair bill on my desk.  He knew the battery would go dead in our other vehicle on the same day and provided someone who came and took it off the charger while I was gone and had it replaced. (Ps 23:1)

As SOVEREIGN PERFECTOR, we know that he does everything in the lives of those who have repented and trusted Christ as Savior to “conform them to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29)

A SOVEREIGN PEACE is provided by the Prince of Peace, not only peace with God because of Christ’s righteousness at salvation, but the “peace of God that surpasses all understanding.”  (Phil. 4:7)

Through His SOVEREIGN PROMISE, we know “all things work together for good to those who love God to those who have been called according to His purpose.”  (Rom. 8:28-29)

As SOVEREIGN PROTECTOR, we entrust to Him the safety of the children as they return to their birth mother.  (Psalm 18:2)

So although we may not immediately see or understand what God is doing, we can be THANKFUL that we serve a SOVEREIGN KING who is LORD OF ALL and we can and will TRUST in Him as He fulfills his SOVEREIGN PLAN.  (Prov. 16:9; 19:21) 

** This article was originally written last October.