Trust in the Lord
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reference:
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,
for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof,
for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Intro
A man told a story of when he was learning to drive, his parents bought him a manual transmission car, you know, the kind with a clutch and a stick-shift. They still exist, though they are getting increasingly hard to find. Getting a manual transmission car going out of first gear is incredibly difficult to get used to, you have to release the brake pedal, push in the clutch, put the car in gear, let out the clutch and give it some gas, all without stalling the car, or pealing out. The matter is complicated by the fact that if you are on any sort of hill, you have to do this incredibly quick or you will roll backwards into the car behind you. Well, he thought he had figured out the perfect solution to this difficulty. When he stopped at a traffic light, the man would pull the emergency brake, which would keep me from rolling backwards. So he just had to pop the clutch and let the brake out while gunning the engine. Let’s just say the first time his father saw him do it, he was less than impressed. He told him that he needed to stop doing it that way. The young man told his dad it worked for him and helped him deal with a difficulty he was having. The young man’s dad told him that it might work for a little while, but eventually he was going to destroy both the brake and the transmission.
That story of the young man and his manual transmission is a microcosm for our lives. We all think we have found a way to avoid living the way God or other people tell us. We console ourselves with the idea that it works, and helps us deal with our current situation. But like this young man and his transmission, the longer he lived that way, they more likely he was to break it.
Have you ever considered why we disobey? Not just why we disobey God, why we disobey anybody? Our parents, our bosses, other authorities, it could be anybody. What causes us to disobey? No one wakes up and says, “I think I’m going to do some sinning today.” All of us have good reasons that we tell ourselves for all the bad stuff we do. If we were honest with ourselves, at the core of why we refuse to do what we are asked or told to do is lack of trust. We don’t believe the person commanding us knows us, or cares about us; perhaps we feel forgotten by them, or perhaps we have forgotten who they are. Whatever reason, we decide we can’t trust them, but instead need to rely on ourselves and take matters into our own hands.
The remedy to such thinking and behavior is to learn to trust again. That is where Proverbs 3 takes us. It is an invitation to trust God, to live the way He commands. The Bible word for this kind of trust is faith, learning to rely on and depend on God instead of ourselves.
Trust God’s Devotion v3-4
Trust God’s Devotion v3-4
We disobey when we forget who God is, or we think God has forgotten us. This proverb encourages us to trust, but not blindly. Before it tells us “how” to trust God, it gives reasons “why” we should trust God and follow His commands.
We are invited to remember God’s “kindness and truth,” or your Bible might say “loyalty and faithfulness.” These are more than just nice-sounding words for human relationship. These words in Hebrew are used to describe God’s devotion to His people, his covenant love and faithfulness. In Exodus 34:6-7, God revealed Himself to Moses:
The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,
maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
God knows you, loves you, is committed to you, not because you are perfect, but because He made you and He loves what He made. This is the central truth that if we could internalize would make us eager to trust God. That is why the proverb tells us to bind this truth to our neck and write it on our heart.
Trust God’s Plan v5-6
Trust God’s Plan v5-6
After telling us why we should trust God, the proverb shows us how. Trust God with your whole heart and don’t trust your own understanding.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
We treat our lives like the young man in today’s story was treating his transmission. It seems right, it feels right, but it leads to destruction. Trust starts when we realize we don’t have all the answers. When we acknowledge our own lack of resources, we open ourselves up to God’s power and wisdom. If you think you are wise in your own eyes, you will do things according to your own assessment of things, which will be deficient.
The promise is that if we will trust God and live according to His plan, He will “make our paths straight.” Straight paths are an ancient symbol for the most direct route to travel to the destination. It is not the promise of an easy path every time, but it does promise that all the unnecessarily pitfalls of evil will be removed. That is what straight paths mean. Life is hard enough without us making it harder on ourselves by doing things which seem easy at the time, but which create detours, dead-ends, and divots in our lives
We treat our lives like the young man in today’s story was treating his transmission. It seems right, it feels right, but it leads to destruction. Trust starts when we realize we don’t have all the answers. When we acknowledge our own lack of resources, we open ourselves up to God’s power and wisdom. If you think you are wise in your own eyes, you will do things according to your own assessment of things, which will be deficient.
The promise is that if we will trust God and live according to His plan, He will “make our paths straight.” Straight paths are an ancient symbol for the most direct route to travel to the destination. It is not the promise of an easy path every time, but it does promise that all the unnecessarily pitfalls of evil will be removed. That is what straight paths mean. Life is hard enough without us making it harder on ourselves by doing things which seem easy at the time, but which create detours, dead-ends, and divots in our lives
Trust God’s Commands v7-8
Trust God’s Commands v7-8
Next the proverb develops the idea of how to trust God. Obey God’s commands. Why do we disobey them. Often, we prefer the term “disregard.” We think they don’t apply to us, or that we are strong enough, or careful enough to not need these safeguards. Perhaps, we are still in the place where we doubt God’s heart and think that God’s commands are intended as burdens to crush our spirits, or wet blankets to spoil our fun.
The Proverbs continues with the theme about not trusting your own understanding by saying, “don’t be wise in your own eyes.” Don’t think you are so clever that you have outgrown the need for guidance and direction.
The promise: it will be healing for your body and refreshment for your bones. The transmission was better when the young man learned to use it correctly. God’s commands are the handbook for running the human machine. Living accord- ing to them will bring joy, peace, healing, and refreshment.
Trust God’s Provision v9-10
Trust God’s Provision v9-10
One of the chief struggles people have is with money. No matter how much anybody has, we all still want a little more. Money is probably the thing that we trust in the most. We know we need it. We misunderstand it. We imagine that our problems would be solved if only we had more money.
This proverb encourages us to remember that God is the source of our provision. It tells us to give a portion of what we receive back to God in gratitude for His provision.
Giving is a difficult subject. It shows how true this proverb is. Many people think the money is theirs. Some people think offerings and tithes are just ways religious people have created to talk people out of their money. The truth is, we love money and we don’t want to give it up. Giving to God is a way of demonstrating in a tangible way that we believe God is the source of all that is good in our life, to show gratitude, and to learn dependence on Him.
This proverb has a promise. If we will trust God with our money, He will bless us. It is so hard for us yet so important that this is one area where God says we can test Him.
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
This isn’t some “prosperity gospel pyramid scheme” promise that God will give us everything we want. It’s a promise that if we trust in God’s provision, we can rely on the fact that He knows what we need, desires our good, and promises to fill our lives with blessing.
Trust God’s Correction v11-12
Trust God’s Correction v11-12
The last area we are asked to trust God is when He disciplines us. Why bad things happen is a question that all people ask at one time or another. The Bible gives several answers. One of them is that sometimes hard times come upon on as a means of helping us see the errors of our ways and encouraging us to return to God. In Haggai 2:17-19, God tells his people,
I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord.
Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider:
Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”
This shows us that sometimes hard times are used by God to get our attention, but the goal is never to condemn or crush but only to encourage us to return to Him and to the path of life.
The correction of God is a sign of His love. He loves us so much that He will not let us remain in sin. He desires us to have the joy that comes from living the way He intended. Many people get caught up in the idea of God using hard times to correct us.
Sometimes it’s hard to think of God loving us and still allowing or even causing hard times to hit us. When those times occur, we have a hard time thinking they are caused by a loving God. Perhaps we feel like those times are proof that God no longer loves us. When faced with that possibility, many people either run away from God or try hard to prove themselves and earn God’s favor. Neither path is positive or necessary.
The right answer is to realize your identity and how God sees you. It is revealed in the last phrase of verse 12: “As the father corrects the son in whom he delights.” The son has acted in a way that requires correction, but the father still delights in the son. It is because the father delights in the son that he corrects him, so that He can experience the blessing that has been prepared for him.
Why does the sinful son still delight his father? Because the son belongs to his father. Even when God corrects us, He is delighting in us. We haven’t lost His love. His correction is proof of His love. We don’t have to earn it. It is ours because he is devoted to us, which brings us back to our first point: trust God’s devotion.
Prayer