My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands;  for they will bring you many days, a full life, and well-being.  Never let loyalty and faithfulness leave you.  Tie them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.  Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.  Do not consider yourself to be wise, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.  This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.  Proverbs 3:1-7 HCSB

Yesterday we talked about mercy and grace.  The day before we spoke of the evil that is all around us.  We need to understand one very important fact.  We need to love God and we need to trust God.  We need to love others, even our enemies, but we are not expected to trust them.  You see the world is full of evil people.  In these end times, we are seeing so much evil everywhere we turn.  It is even taking over many churches. So what’s a Christian to do? First and foremost, put your trust in God.  Trust Him to lead you and guide you.  Our scripture passage says that we must not forget His teaching and keep his commands.  We do this by staying in God’s Word.  We must not only read, but study our bibles.  This is why finding a good, bible teaching church is so important.  I thank God for giving us a pastor that is not just a preacher , but a pastor, a shepherd.  He doesn’t candy coat it, He tells us just how it is according to God’s Holy Word.

The bible clearly tells us in Matthew 5:44 that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  But nowhere in the bible does it tell us that we must trust our enemies.  Nowhere in the bible does it tell us that we must associate with our enemies.  Now you may want to try to share the gospel with your enemy, but if they reject it, then you must move on.  In Matthew 10:14, Jesus told his disciples that if anyone did not welcome them into their home, they should shake the dust off their feet and move on.

God is never changing.  Man is fickle.  This is why we must trust in God.  God is steadfast.  God will never let you down.  He may not always give you everything you ask for, but He’s always got your back.  I’m sure that there is not one person reading this that has not been let down by another human being.  We have all trusted and been disappointed.  This is why it is so important that we put all of our trust in God.  When we do this, we can trust Him to give us wisdom in our relationships.  We can trust Him to guide us in the way that we should go. Our scripture tells us that if we obey God’s commands we will find favor with both God and man.  Now it is not our job to please man, but as Christians, it is our job to set an example of Godly living.  It goes on to tell us to trust in God with all our heart and not to trust in our own understanding.  I could spend the whole day giving you examples of where I have done things my way and made a huge mess of things, but I am sure you have plenty of your own examples.  Then we are told to think about God in all our ways and He will guide our paths.  I have learned the hard way to consult God in every decision there is to be made.  I trust Him with my relationships, I trust Him with my finances, I trust Him when I travel, I trust Him in everything I do.  I try to consult Him before making any important decision.

Now verse 7 is one that I want to urge you to pay careful attention to; it tells us that we should not consider ourselves wise, but that we should fear the Lord and turn away from evil.  In simple terms, we might be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist, but we don’t know what lies ahead.  We have no idea what our future holds, God knows.  He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), but when we start thinking that we have everything under control, then we are headed for disaster.  We must look to the Lord for guidance in all that we do.  We must fear the Lord. This doesn’t mean to fear Him like in some type of horror movie.  This means that we have a reverential awe of Him. This means that we have a deep love for Him that causes us to not want to disappoint Him.  This means that we understand His power and His might and we don’t want to step off on the wrong side of that.

But most importantly we are told to turn away from evil.  In other words, don’t dance too close to the fire.  There is a fine line between saving someone and getting dragged down with them.  We think that we can handle relationships with those that practice evil.  We know that Jesus sat down and ate with sinners.  Well, Jesus was also tempted and did not sin.  You are not Jesus.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:22 we are told to stay away from every form of evil.  Don’t think you are smart enough or strong enough to handle it, just stay away from it.

The bottom line is this, if we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind (Luke 10:27) then we will trust in Him and acknowledge Him in all that we do.  When we do these things, He gives us the wisdom we need to know who we can trust and who we need to stay away from.  If God is revealing to you that someone is evil or is caught up in something that is evil, stay away.  We can love people and pray for them from a safe  distance.

Have a great day!