Be Wise!
Proverbs 3:5-6
June 30, 2019
There was a man who was a really good rock climber. He took the challenge on a really difficult rock formation. As he was climbing, he slipped and as he fell, he grabbed hold of a branch jutting out from the side of the rocks.
He wasn’t sure how he would make it to the top of the cliff, so he began to scream for help. After screaming for awhile, he stopped to reassess his situation. There were no other places for him to put his hands, so he yelled again, “Is there anyone who can help me?”
Finally, he heard a voice. “I’m here, I can help you.”
The man was so relieved. He thanked God that help was there. He yelled again, “Who are you?”
The voice replied, “I’m God!”
Now, the man was a little confused, but he didn’t really care, help was there.
So, he said, “Thank you, God, will you help me?”
God said, “Yes, you just need to do one thing.”
Man - “What’s that God, I’ll do anything!”
God - “Just let go and I’ll catch you!”
Man - thought about it, asked God to repeat Himself . . . Finally the man said “Is there anybody else up there who can help me?”
Isn’t that so true about us? We’ve heard of the expression
Let go and let God!
Let go of my fears. Let go of my resentments. Let go of my need to be in control of people and traffic and the weather. Let go of my image. Let go of what I did yesterday. Let go of what might happen tomorrow. Let go of my demand to have my own way. Let go of my life; and let God do for me what I cannot do for myself. Letting go does not come naturally to us.
We’re really just getting started in a new series that we started last week. We’re talking about Being Wise. Using the wisdom we get from God to help us navigate life. Doing this will help us make better decisions, because we’re accepting His wisdom into our lives and then applying it.
Solomon tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6 - -
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6
The simple point Solomon is trying to make is that - - if we would be willing to let go of our need to have our own way, and let God direct our paths, we would be much better off.
In the book of Job, one of Job’s friends gives him some good wisdom, telling Job -
13 “If you prepare your heart, you will stretch out your hands toward Him. – Job 11:13
The friend wanted Job to know that if you prepare your heart by surrendering your heart to God, you will then be more willing to stretch out your hands toward God.
That’s a really great image for us to hold onto.
There’s a great image for this and I read it in one of Henri Nouwen’s books. Nouwen was a priest who became fascinated with a group of trapeze artists called the Flying Rodleigh's.
Nouwen had the opportunity to become friends with the trapeze artists and one day while he was talking to Rodleigh, the leader of the troupe, about flying. Rodleigh explained, ‘As a flyer, I must have complete trust in my catcher. The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher. He has to be there for me with split-second precision and grab me out of the air as I come to him.’
Nouwen asked, ‘How does it work?’
Rodleigh explained, ‘The secret, is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything. When I fly to Joe, I simply have to stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me.’
A surprised Nouwen said, ‘You do nothing!’
Rodleigh repeated, ‘Nothing, the worst thing the flyer can do is to try to catch the catcher. I am not supposed to catch Joe. It’s Joe’s task to catch me. A flyer must fly, and a catcher must catch, and the flyer must trust, with outstretched arms, that his catcher will be there for him.’
That’s a great image for us. Our job is to fly through the air and trust the catcher, God. Our part is to trust and surrender, to give up our life; God's part is to catch, to hold, to do in me and for me what I can't do for myself.
When I surrender my whole life, my whole will to God — I am ready to receive the power to do what I can't do. But too often don’t we try to solve all of the world’s problems on our own? We try to get it done on our own. We become the flyer and the catcher all in one.
So, let’s look at Proverbs 3:5-6 and see what that means for our lives, as we seek to use God’s wisdom to help us be successful.
The passage starts out –
5 TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, and DO NOT LEAN ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING.
How many times in our lives have we struggled to make sense of life’s events. Our understanding of most things is pretty limited. God sees the big picture - - we see our picture.
When bad things happen, often times we’re clueless, even when we can explain it away, in our grief we still struggle.
Why did our child become sick or have a disability?
Why did my spouse want to divorce me?
Why did my spouse become so sick?
Why did my best friend die?
Why did I lose my job?
WHY? WHY? WHY? That’s a huge question and I believe too many people just get stuck there. We can’t get past the why’s of life. We ask, but usually we only want an answer that will satisfy us. We may ask God for the reasons, but we don’t wait for His answers, instead we run off searching for our good reason.
When we look at this passage, the word trust is more than a simple trust. It’s not like I know the sun will rise in the morning in the east. It takes us beyond that. It’s a bold and confident trust. I boldly and confidently trust - - Jesus died for my sins, so I could be forgiven, redeemed and some day have eternal life with Him.
That’s the basis of what Solomon wants for us. Secondly, it’s to realize the small word in that sentence is huge! We are to trust in the Lord with just some of our heart? Maybe trust God with 50% on some days, and on good days, go for 75%. No! That’s not what Solomon’s telling us. We are to trust God with 100% of our hearts. With ALL of our hearts! That’s a really important point.
When you do anything with ALL of your heart, that means you are giving it your ALL. It means you will do everything possible. When you trust God with all of your heart, it means whatever is thrown your way - - the immovable roadblocks and difficulties that seem to have no solution - do have a solution - - it means you trust God to give you the solution.
It means you have a bold and confident trust in God as you give 100% of your heart. When we don’t, that’s when we lean on our own understanding and our own plans. And those usually fall short and get us in more trouble.
When we think of tragedies, there’s not always a good answer. If I told you the pick up truck that hit motorcycles and killed 7 people in New Hampshire was the result of sin and human error . . . would that make the grief any easier for the families? No!
Humanly, our answers don’t always make sense and sometimes the words we hear from God don’t always make sense at the moment. Now, I’m not saying God doesn’t make sense or doesn’t have a plan. But when there’s a tragedy and we’re trying to make sense of it, God’s words are sometimes difficult to grasp at the time. Later, we may have a better understanding of what God is trying to tell us.
This is when we need to put our trust in God’s plan over ours, even if His plan is not the one we really wanted. We didn’t want to lose our job, but God had a better plan for us than we ever could have.
You can say, "God, I don't understand why this happening ... I don't understand this divorce ... I don't understand this business failure ... I don't understand why this friendship has died ... I don't understand why I'm having health problems — but I know that you, Lord, know what's going on, and I will trust you."
I believe God desires to bless each of us, and maybe your life doesn’t seem possible that God could bless you with what’s going on. You may not understand it all, but God does, and God has a plan for you.
Have you ever wondered how pilots fly airplanes at night? The lights they have on the plane are more for them to be seen and not to see.
The fact is, they don't see where they're going. They have a panel of gauges and instruments that tell them where they are and what they need to do in order to get where they want to be. These gauges are a thousand times more reliable than the pilot's own sense of direction.
If you’re in a plane flying over the Rocky Mountains, on a cloudy dark night, I don't want a pilot who’s depending on their sense of direction, who thinks, "I think the mountains are to my left so I will steer to the right." No, I want a pilot whose eyes are glued to the instrument panel, because that panel is far more reliable.
It's the same with trusting God.
You don't have to be able to explain away every event that happens in your life, you only have to trust God to do what He’s promised. Your own sense of understanding will not get you through life; but trusting God when you don't understand will.
The last part of verse 5 tells us not to lean on our own understanding. It’s kind of a strange phenomenon. Because from the time we’re about 3 or 4 years old, we go to school. It starts at home, but formally, we send our kids to nursery school, then from kindergarten through high school, they’ve spent at least 13 years learning. Then if they go to college, it’s 4 more years, and possibly more after that. So, our kids may be in school for 13-23 or so years to gain knowledge and understanding.
But now Solomon is telling us don’t lean on your own understanding! But that's what most people lean on. We believe we can do it ourselves; we can figure it. We can watch a youtube video or Google it and we’ll know everything. Do a Wikipedia search . . . because we all know the Internet is never wrong.
But the Bible tells us, “Hold on! Understand that if you lean on your own understanding, your own body of information, rather than leaning on the Lord’s wisdom and guidance, for direction and advice, you're going to have trouble.”
So, how do you know God's will? It’s really a matter of talking to God. James tells us –
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. – James 1:5
Now, let me tell you something you may not like - - we all lack wisdom. We all struggle at times, and we need Godly wisdom. So, James tells us if you’re struggling with a decision, then just ask God and God will give His wisdom generously to you.
Not only will God give generously . . . but God will give to you without reproach. Reproach is not the most common word in the English language. It means when you go to God seeking wisdom, He’s not going to look at you and shake His head and wonder, “why did I create this dude! I can’t believe they’re asking about this.”
If it is important to you, it’s important to God. Lean on God, talk to Him, ask Him and God will help you to find peace in your heart about your decisions. And sometimes you need to ask more than once. That’s where we get it wrong. We think, I’ll ask once, and if I don’t get a response in 20 seconds, then I’ll go solve things on my own. That’s not the case. Sometimes God wants to know that we’re serious about what we’re asking about.
Finally, Solomon tells us ---
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.
Again, we see that small word ALL. Not in some of your ways, but in ALL your ways. In ALL that you do, acknowledge the Lord. It means in everything you do, consider what God’s will is.
Now, do you need to pray about what color socks you’re going to wear, or what pants or dress you wear? We shouldn’t have to. We should be aligned close enough to God to know what’s appropriate and what’s not. If we don’t, then we need to seek His wisdom.
The word acknowledge comes from the word “TO KNOW.” And it’s just not a passing knowledge, but a deep knowing. So, have a deep knowing of God and when you do, He will make your paths straight. Because of the intimacy you have in your relationship with God, you’ve developed a rhythm and pattern in life where He can guide you and you willingly accept His guidance and wisdom.
So, as we continue to look at wisdom over the next few weeks, this is really step stone passage and week.
When it comes to living your life, as you seek to get it together and keep it together, you can follow one of two strategies. You can either do life on your own and hope for the best, or you can follow the Lord and know where you’ll end up.
You don't have to know all the details about how things are supposed to work, you only have to follow the One who does.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6
