“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)
Life. It can be going along great and suddenly, wham! A detour. The unexpected thing happens, a scary diagnosis, loss of a job, death of a loved one, a child is ill or hurt, family conflicts arise, infertility – the storms of life. No one breezes through life without some kind of storm to face.
I wish I could look back and report that in each storm of life I made the right decisions. Some of those times, foolishly, I did lean on my own understanding and had to reap consequences I don’t have time to go into. How does that happen when we have the best intentions? Sometimes those times come right after a time of huge spiritual growth and sometimes when we are struggling spiritually. Both are perfect opportunities for the enemy to step in and cause havoc. Yet, our always faithful Good Shepherd loves and pursues us in those times and brings the wandering lamb back into the fold.
Not leaning on our own understanding means trusting the Lord in all situations to keep His promise to never leave us or forsake us. It means putting on the whole armor of God every day to keep us strong in our faith. Even then, sometimes God uses or allows the hard things to accomplish His plan to make us more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). God’s plan is to shape our character to reflect the attributes of Jesus Christ, and he sometimes uses things that seem unfair to us to do that. Most importantly HE LOVES US! He is there for us and He wants us to trust Him completely in the good times and the bad. He promises to work all things together for our good.
My former boss, Pastor Dennis, used the acronym S.B.I.G.O. when unexpected things happened. “Something bigger is going on.” Meaning that God is at work in our lives and when we don’t understand everything, S.B.I.G.O. We wouldn’t need faith if there were no unexpected storms would we? We can be prepared for those eventual storms. These two short verses, along with Proverbs 3:5, are helpful to remember (or memorize) to be prepared:
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans.” (Psalm 118:8)
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” (Psalm 56:3)
Lord, please help us to honor You and trust that You love us and want the best for us. Amen.
Deb Hill
Senior Administrative Assistant