The Crossroads Of Faith

Introduction: The Self-built Structure

We are all builders. From the moment we wake up and face the day, we are constructing our lives, making decisions that add to the structure of our future. And every structure needs a foundation, something to lean on when the ground shakes and the storms of life begin to rage.

The question today is not if you are leaning on something, but what you are leaning on. By our very nature, we are inclined to lean on what we can see, what we can measure, and what we think we can control. We use the bricks of our academic degrees, the mortar of our career titles, the steel beams of our financial portfolios, and the validation of our social media feeds to build this structure. From the outside, this building can look impressive, strong, and self-sufficient. But its foundation is dangerously flawed—it rests on the shifting sands of human frailty. And one day, the storm will come, and the structure we built to honor ourselves will come crashing down.

This morning, God’s Word gives us a different blueprint. It presents a divine alternative, a fundamental choice we must make not just once, but every single day. It's a crossroads for our soul found in Proverbs 3:5: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."

This verse is the GPS for a surrendered life. It gives us a command to follow, and it warns us of a road to avoid. Let’s look at these two directions together.

I. The Divine Command - "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart"

1. What is This Trust?

The first path at this crossroads is a positive command: "Trust in the LORD." The Hebrew word for "trust" here, batach, is a powerful, active word. It's not a weak, passive hope or wishful thinking. It means to throw your entire weight onto something, to be so confident in its support that you feel utterly secure. It is a radical reliance.

It’s the trust a patient has in a surgeon before a life-saving operation, surrendering complete control.

It's the trust you have in a pilot when you board a plane. You don't know him, you haven't checked his credentials or inspected the engine, but you sit down and put your life in his hands for the journey.

2. Who Do We Trust?

We give this kind of trust to fallible people every day. The verse asks us to place this same radical trust in a perfect and infallible God: The LORD, Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God of the universe. His character is the iron-clad reason our trust is never misplaced.

He is All-Knowing: He sees the end from the beginning. Your understanding sees the road ahead for a few feet; He sees the entire map.

He is All-Powerful: The obstacle that seems like a mountain to you is a pebble for Him to move.

He is All-Loving: His will for you is always born out of perfect love, even when His ways are mysterious.

3. How Much Do We Trust?

The verse adds a crucial qualifier: "with all thine heart." This is where the real challenge lies. God isn’t interested in partial trust. He doesn’t want to be your co-pilot; He wants to be the pilot. "All thine heart" means all of you:

Your mind and intellect: Trusting God even when His plan doesn't add up on your spreadsheet.

Your emotions and feelings: Trusting His goodness even when your heart is filled with fear or anxiety.

Your will and desires: Choosing His path even when your own ambitions are screaming for you to take a different turn.

Where Faith Becomes Action

What does this look like practically? Trusting with all your heart means you tithe even when the budget is tight, believing He is your provider. It means you pray for your children instead of suffocating them with worry, believing they are ultimately in His hands. It means you forgive the person who hurt you, not because they deserve it, but because you trust God's command for freedom. It is an all-in, no-backup-plan kind of trust.

II. The Dangerous Alternative - "and lean not unto thine own understanding"

1. The Unreliable Foundation

The second part of the verse is the other road at the crossroads, a critical warning: "and lean not unto thine own understanding." You cannot trust in God with all your heart while simultaneously keeping one foot planted firmly on the ground of your own understanding. To truly lean on Him, you must stop leaning on yourself. What is "your own understanding"? It’s your logic, your experience, your "common sense." It's your perception of reality. And the Bible tells us it is a dangerously unreliable foundation. Why? Because our understanding is always:

Limited by information: You only see a tiny fraction of what is going on.