Proverbs 3:5-6New International Version (NIV)
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.[a]
Ever had a bad hair day
Winston Churchill primeminister of England during world war 2 had a very bad hair day in May 1940 in fact he had several
A recent movie called Dunkirk commemorates an incredible day in Englands history
France Belgium Holland and England were hammered by the German troops and the massive army of England stood on the beaches of Dunkirk waiting for the death blow to come from the Germans. With the entire front collapsing rapidly, the decision was reached at home to evacuate the forces from the Continent. But the only port from which to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force was Dunkirk, and that was already being seriously threatened by the Germans. Taking stock of the predicament, Churchill said in The Second World War. 'I thought—and some good judges agreed with me—that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked.
But Britain had a godly Sovereign. Seeing this situation developing, His Majesty King George VI requested that Sunday, 26 May should be observed as a National Day of Prayer. In a stirring broadcast, he called the people of Britain and of the Empire to commit their cause to God. Together with members of the Cabinet, the King attended Westminster Abbey, whilst millions of his subjects in all parts of the Commonwealth and Empire flocked to the churches to join in prayer.. The whole nation was at prayer on that Sunday. The scene outside Westminster Abbey was remarkable—photographs show long queues of people who could not even get in, the Abbey was so crowded! So much so, that the following morning the Daily Sketch exclaimed, 'Nothing like it has ever happened before.'
In its hour of deep distress a heart-cry from both monarch and people alike was going up to God in prayer.
What happened after that was remarkable.
The first miracle
The first was that for some reason—which has never yet been fully explained—Hitler overruled his generals and halted the advance of his armoured columns at the very point when they could have proceeded to the British army's annihilation. They were now only ten miles away.
The second miracle
A storm of unprecedented fury broke over Flanders on Tuesday, 28 May, (1940) grounding the German Luftwaffe squadrons and enabling the British army formations, now eight to twelve miles from Dunkirk, to move up on foot to the coast in the darkness of the storm and the violence of the rain, with scarcely any interruption from aircraft, which were unable to operate in such turbulent conditions.
The third miracle
Despite the storm in Flanders, a great calm—such as has rarely been experienced—settled over the English Channel during the days which followed, and its waters became as still as a mill pond.
It was this quite extraordinary calm which enabled a vast armada of little ships, big ships, warships, privately owned motor-cruisers from British rivers and estuaries – in fact, almost anything that would float – to ply back and forth in a desperate bid to rescue as many men as possible.
A strange immunity
Even though some squadrons did get through, it seems that yet another miracle happened.
Many of the troops on the beaches were favoured with a strange immunity. When about 400 men were being machine-gunned and bombed, systematically, by about sixty enemy aircraft, one man who flung himself down with the rest reported that, after the strafing was over, he was amazed to find that there was not a single casualty.
Another man, a chaplain, was likewise machine-gunned and bombed as he lay on the beach. After what seemed an eternity, he realized he had not been hit, and rose to his feet to find that the sand all around where he had been lying was pitted with bullet holes, and that his figure was outlined on the ground.
Amazing events
'Officers of high rank do not hesitate to put down the deliverance of the British Expeditionary Force to the fact of the nation being at prayer on Sunday, 26 May, two days before that great storm in Flanders and the calm that came over the Channel.'
gone over our soul. But praised be the Lord: Who has not given us over for a prey unto their teeth. Our soul is escaped even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler: the snare is broken, and we are delivered. Our help standeth in the name of the Lord: who hath made heaven and earth'
No other passage of Scripture could have more aptly described the nation's experience on that day. The words seem to have been especially written for the occasion.
We get into all kinds of difficult situations in our lives – Every week most of us encounter people with extraordinary difficulties that they need to face.
Currently we have an election coming up and every party seems to be saying trust me!!!!!!
They appeal to our reason and emotive issues but in the end God will have his way.I believe this scripture has a lot to say about how we should approach – not just elections but every major hurdle that we face in life.
Trust in the Lord – Politicians say Trust Me! But the truth is and we all know this very few actually deliver what they are saying they are going to deliver. Politicians appeal to our understanding so does our brain. But reason and treason are often willing partners in the dance of life.
But here we are called to Trust in the Lord. One of the things I have learned is that I can not even trust myself – my own thinking and logic can be sadly awry – A Story About a Joy-Seeking Missionary Family
When Bernie May was the head of Wycliffe Bible Translators he visited a young family in a Muslim nation. They had been there three years working with a people group of one hundred thousand people and no knowledge of Christ. This couple had three children under five years old.
The baby was covered with pox marks, some of which looked infected. He asked if the child had chicken pox. “No, those are ant bites,” the mother said. “We can’t keep the ants off him. Eventually he will become immune to them.”
In a moment of honesty she confessed she felt guilty because she was suffering from stress. Stress! She and her young husband came there from mid-USA. Now they live in a place where the temperature is above 100 degrees most of the year. The children are covered with bites; a war is going on close by; their helpers are in danger for being their friends; many in the villages are suffering from hunger and disease; they can’t even let their supporters know what they are doing so that they can pray for them since they are in a “critical” area — and she feels guilty because she is under stress.
I told her she had every right to feel stressful. I had only been their three days and I was already beginning to come unglued. Yet this dedicated young couple are laughing and joking and filled with the joy of the Lord.
Circumstances can get incredibly difficult But God’s wisdom is utterly dependable The ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another -- it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much of his time showing us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find or follow the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, likely we would impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm brewing and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we would thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn to lean on him thankfully. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself, to -- in the classic scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly man’s life -- "wait on the Lord." – James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” Romans 11:33
“Maybe I've got to be sufficiently broken by life's many broken promises to be sufficiently compelled to seek out God's unbreakable promises.”
? Craig D. Lounsbrough, An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus
When we are called to trust in God or anyone we always look to their credability and reliability and we want to season that with hope.
Whatever person we are trusting in we normally find that there are areas of unreliability and areas that we cannot trust them in.
Jesus knew this with Judas = (Mt. 26:21-25):
And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.” Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”
Again, note that the others call Jesus “Lord,” while Judas will only go as far as “Rabbi.”
The truth is the only one we can really trust is God – Only God is thoroughly reliable.
Jeremiah 29:13: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Really the first point here is we need to know the Character of the one we are relying on – Only god is thoroughly Trustworthy
AW Tozer comes up with 18 attributes of God that make him 100 percent trustworthy.
Attributes of God – The Characteristics
Wisdom: “Infinitude: Sovereignty: Holiness: Trinity: Omniscience:
Faithfulness: Omnipotence: Self-existence: Self-sufficiency: Justice: Immutability: Mercy: “Eternal
Goodness,Gracious: Omnipresence: Some big words here but they mean that God is totally trustworthy.
1st point know the Character of the one you are putting trust in.
2ndly trust him with all that you’ve got. – All your heart.
When we pray, we admit that His ways are higher than ours. We show that we’re leaving our troubles and burdens and dreams in His capable hands. In fact, the Bible promises that when we reach out to Him in prayer, He hears us:
“Evening, morning, and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. ” (Psalm 55:17)
Trusting in god with all your heart is putting your total dependence in him.
3 Lean on God
If you are looking for someone in the bible who does this go no further than Job
Job was in despair. His whole life had been turned upside down. He had lost his wealth and his loved ones in a series of sudden calamities. Now his health was gone too. Why? Job was deeply frustrated because he could not make sense out of his trials. Yet in the depths of perplexity and despair he made one of the most profound declarations of faith recorded in the Bible: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (13:15).
In Job 19 we read the words of anguish that poured from Job’s lips. “Know that God has overthrown and put me in the wrong, and has closed His net about me.... He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness upon my paths.... My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.... I am repulsive to my wife and loathsome to the children of my own mother” (vv. 6, 8, 14, 17 Amplified Bible). Yet even at this low point of anguish and bewilderment, Job declares his heartfelt trust in God. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth.... I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself” (vv. 25–27).
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
The question to ask here is what are you leaning on? When you have lots of trappings – goods then it is easy to lean on them. If I have had a bad day then I come home and call out Heathers name because it is good in marriage to lean on each other. But to lean on god is much better and highly desirable.
Some things look great but they are not in Zambia Two men fell from the fifth floor of a state-owned residential building on the East Rand, Gauteng, after a wall they were reportedly leaning on collapsed. One of the men, believed to have been 27 years old, has died.
A resident at the building has claimed that the unsafe wall was reported to the council, first in 2008 and 2010. The council reportedly later attempted to repair the wall, but residents described it as a “patch job”.
The flats have recently been in local news in Benoni for their general state of disrepair.
The scripture says – lean not on your own understanding –
Without God’s wisdom we are like that wall – likely to collapse at some point.
3.Lean on God he is far more reliable.
Jesus said Come to me all you who are tired and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
That seems to me a suggestion that says – Lean on me.
Many times in life we hear in the courts of incredible failures. The person who has been held in such high regard has failed. Why because they are part of the fallen human race.
Put your trust in God.
The people of England did that in one historic moment during world war 2 and it saved an army.
Job did that choosing not to lean on the advice of his friends and the last passage of Job says the last part of his life was better than the first
Lean on god Joseph Tson, a Romanian pastor who stood up to Ceausescu’s repressions of Christianity, wrote,
This union with Christ is the most beautiful subject in the Christian life. It means that I am not a lone fighter here: I am an extension of Jesus Christ. When I was beaten in Romania, He suffered in my body. It is not my suffering: I only had the honor to share His sufferings. (undated paper: “A Theology of Martyrdom”)
To lean on God and not on your or others understanding is a profound thing Jesus once faced by people deserting him asked the disciples if they too would like to go. Peter famously replied Where would we go you alone have the words of eternal life.
We have to work out where we lean.
Your leanings at the election might be left right or centre but with Christ we lean on God’s counsel
William Carey knew that
"even the Directors of the East India Company opposed [Carey's] work. Following is the idiotic resolution they presented to Parliament:
'The sending out of missionaries into one Eastern possession is the maddest, most extravagant, most costly, most indefensible project which has ever been suggested by a moonstruck fanatic.'"
"In 1796, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passed the following infamous resolution: 'To spread the knowledge of the gospel amongst barbarians and heathens seems to be highly preposterous.' One speaker in the House of Commons said that he would rather see a band of devils let loose in India than a band of missionaries. Such was the opposition to missions when Carey set forth.
Yet he chose to lean on God!And yet, he was able to write, 'Why is my soul disquieted within me? Things may turn out better than I expect. Everything is known to God, and God cares.'" William Carey stood the test, and became the father of modern missions.
Daily Bread.
