If you’ve followed this blog from the beginning, you may recall several months ago that I posted a few items that I had learned concerning “trust.” I felt that I had learned that lesson. That is until recently, when in my devotional time I felt the Lord giving me two things for that particular day. One thing I was to do, and one thing I was not to do.
- To do — Trust in the Lord with all my heart.
- Not to do — Don’t lean on my own understanding.
I was reminded again of Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.” Okay, so I know this verse very well. I’ve been there, done that. I thought I had passed that test, but for some reason, the following was impressed on me, “Do you understand?”
Even as a small child we are asked this question by well-meaning adults, who fall to their knees and in desperation, look their toddler in the eyes and ask, “Do you understand me?” When we enter school, hardly a day passes that we don’t hear the same question over and over and over, again, “Do you understand me?” This is our lives. This is our training.
Our education and our entire learning process as a human is based on our understanding. When we are being presented something new, we are asked, “Do you understand?” If we don’t, then the teacher, instructor, or whoever is presenting to us, will back up and approach the explanation from another angle. Often they may have to try several times for us to understand, but until the light bulb comes on, and we understand, we cannot use the information that is being given to us.
From our letters, to our numbers, as we are taught in school, we place those blocks of understanding in our minds, and we are able from letters to make words, and from numbers to do math, etc. We learn to read, and write, colors and shapes, and everything that we learn later in life is based on those blocks of understanding that we gained as a child.
When we are able to understand, then our mind can make sense of this and we can then add this to our base of knowledge. This is the way we learn and expand our knowledge. It’s all based on our understanding. Nothing makes sense if we don’t understand.
When we encounter something in life such as the death of a child, or a spouse, or the loss of a job, or some tragedy strikes our family or our friends, we have no building blocks of understanding to grasp this, and can make no sense of it. You may have, at some point, experienced a tragedy, and you may have told God, “I just don’t understand.” If you haven’t yet, trust me, you will.
When the Word tells us to “Trust the Lord and don’t lean on our understanding,” this is completely contrary to the way our mind processes information. If fact, by leaning on our understanding is how we resolve everything in our minds. This is ingrained in us from our childhood.
When we understand something, we are in essence saying that it makes sense to us. When we encounter anything that we can’t understand, or make sense of, then our human minds tend to disregard whatever it is. If something doesn’t make sense, then we have a tendency to struggle with those issues. We “need” for things to make sense to us, and unfortunately God does not always make sense.
It would appear that our trust in God, must be based on something that is diametrically opposed to everything we have learned as a human. But isn’t that really like most Kingdom principles?
Herein lies the human struggle. How do you trust in God, when you don’t understand? This is not an easy lesson to learn, and it doesn’t come naturally to us. I wish I had three steps to give you, to make it easy, but I don’t. It can only happen when you practice it over and over and over, again. Maybe that’s why I was reminded again.
When life doesn’t make sense — trust in the Lord.
When I can’t figure it out — trust in the Lord.
When I can’t understand — trust in the Lord.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. Perhaps you know the verse well, and can quote it from memory. But maybe, just maybe, you needed to be reminded of it again today.
Do you understand me?
Still Believing!
