Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths. Don’t consider yourself to be wise; fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
Proverbs 3:5-7 HCSB
I look back on some of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my life and I realize that I never once consulted God in those things. I just figured I knew what was best and I plunged into something that would turn into a huge mess. Praise God, we serve a God who can take our mess and make it our message.
If you want to make a mess of relationships just do it however you think best. If you want to make horrible decisions in your career, just do it however you think you should do it. If you want to make horrible financial decisions that could lead to financial devastation, do whatever you deem best. But, if you want to make wise decisions, don’t trust yourself with any decisions.
Our scripture passage today tells us to trust in the LORD with all our heart and never rely on our own understanding. I think about all the huge life mistakes I could have avoided if I had only obeyed this command. Verse 6 tells us to think about Him in all our ways and He will guide us on the right paths. When we focus on God and keep Him in mind in all that we do, He guides us. With God guiding us we are able to stay on the straight and narrow.
Now some of you may be adrenaline junkies and consider the straight and narrow to be dull and boring. I guess I was guilty of that many times in my life. I thought I had it all figured out and I also thought I could handle any consequences that came my way because of my actions. I was so wrong. I thought it would be more exciting to do it my way. That didn’t work out so well. I had to try it God’s way.
Life with God is not boring, it’s just peaceful and joyful. I still go through ups and downs and trials and tribulations, I just go through with God given wisdom because I am relying on Him. I am trusting Him to guide my path. I will admit there are still times that I start to stray off the path. But just like a shepherd with his staff, God gently pulls me back onto the right path when I stray.
An article by Matt Houston was posted in Psychology Today in September, 2018 which talked about how many decisions the average adult makes in a day. He found research that suggests that we make about 35,000 decisions in a day, roughly 2,000 decisions in an hour for those of us who sleep 7 hours. Now some of those may be as simple as deciding to scratch an itch, but that’s 35,000 decisions that we could get wrong if we are not careful. Many of these may seem to be small, insignificant decisions that effect us alone. But what about the decisions we make that effect family members or close friends? What about the decisions that may have lasting impact on not only our lives, but the lives of others? Do you trust yourself with these decisions? Do you feel that you have this all under control? If so, you might want to think again. You see, as humans, we can decide wrong because we have no idea what the future holds. At best, we are guessing.
But when we trust our decisions to God and allow Him to guide us, we are trusting them to the One who knows exactly what our future holds. He knows what is best for us. We can trust Him to lead us in the way we should go.
About ten years ago, I stopped trusting myself to make big decisions. It has been a work in progress because I sometimes think it’s simple and I can handle it. I have learned that when I leave it all to Him, even the simplest decisions, He never lets me down. When I trust in Him in all that I do, He guides me. With His guidance, I can’t go wrong.
I still have trials and tribulations, but that’s a part of life. When I trust Him to walk through these with me, I come out okay. The biggest and most important decision I have made in my life is to follow Jesus. I decided to trust in Him and obey Him and I have never regretted that.
If you are tired of messing up, why not give it all over to Him today. Trust in Him and He will lead you and guide you in the way you should go. Remember, He knows what your future holds. So do you really want to trust yourself with all those decisions?
Have a great day!