We’ve begun reading through the Bible together at our church. As we made our way through Exodus, it struck us how impatient and even irritated we could be toward the Israelites as they made their way through the wilderness. Most of us struggled with understanding how a group of people, who are meant to be God’s people, can witness God’s power and provision – through supernatural plagues, the Red Sea splitting wide open, the receiving of breakfast every morning from heaven – and still doubt God.
But as our little group talked through it, a light of truth began to dawn. We are the same way! One day God protects us, providing the help we need – and the next day we’re worried about how we’re going to pay a bill or keep our kids safe.
How easily we humans forget.
How easily we humans fail to trust God.
And we’re hitting upon the very reason God didn’t take the Israelites straight from Egypt and plop them into the Promised Land. He knew they had much to learn – specifically, how to trust Him.
It’s also why God chose to have manna appear every day and not just once a week. He knew this was a way to help the Israelites learn to trust Him. Every single day, every single meal, God would deliver. He’d come through for them. God wanted them to discover how faithful He is – all the time, in every situation.
On this side of the cross, we are still learning that same lesson – trust God. Even though we have the added benefit of the Holy Spirit, we forget to lean not on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). Even though God raised Jesus from the dead, we forget that the same power of the Holy Spirit resides in us and equips us to trust Him (Romans 15:13).
Our God, who is rich in mercy and whose love abounds for us, has chosen to save us by grace. He grants us the ability to walk this earth in the natural realm while simultaneously seating us with Christ in the spiritual realm – all because of His great kindness. And in the end of days, God looks forward to showing us even more of His incomparable riches of grace, yet none of this is by our doing. All of this is ours by faith and by grace (Ephesians 2:4-8). All of this grace, from what was, to what is and is to come, has been gifted to us by God and is meant to be the means of building trust in our good, good Father.
Trusting = Leaning
Last week we pictured God’s throne in heaven as one of grace – one which we approach with confidence because of the work of grace Jesus accomplished in His death, resurrection, and ascension (Hebrews 4:16). That little prepositional phrase, “with confidence,” sticks with me. Challenges me. I think because it’s so easy to nod my head with a logical understanding of what Jesus did and how believers can now enter God’s presence.
However, the proverbial rubber meets the road when something pops up in life I didn’t expect or a situation arises that causes me to pause with uncertainty. I panic a bit, wondering what I should do.
And that’s the very moment I have a choice. Like standing at a crossroads, will I turn left and lean on my own understanding? Or will I turn right and approach the throne of grace with confidence? Will I trust my plans or will I trust God? Oooopf. There. It. Is.
Such a crossroads is less about highlighting “our own wisdom or ability to stay the course;” rather it reveals “where we place our confidence.”1 So, in our momentary panic or uncertainty, what’s our response? Look to ourselves? Or lean on God?
The beauty of what the writer of Hebrews is trying to convey in that fourth chapter is Jesus became the Great High Priest so that we don’t have to rely solely on ourselves. By His grace, He has given us a much better option – “the security of His presence to lean on.”1
Pair all this with what the famous proverb tells us:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Proverbs 3:5-6
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.”
When our life-path takes us to a round-about with so many exits that we don’t know which one to take, we shift our gaze then enter God’s throne room, giving our All-Knowing Father our whole hearts.
It’s important to note that in the Hebrew worldview, the ‘heart’ was much more than the organ that pumps blood. It was also the center of all thought, emotion, and choices.2 With that complete view of ‘heart’, we can more fully comprehend that to trust God with our heart is to surrender to Him all our thinking, feeling, and choosing – and actually trust Him to lead us well.
There’s one more little word-play we need to unpack so that we’re sure not to impose our assumptions onto what Scripture is telling us. God making our “paths straight” is not a prosperity-type promise that if we trust God, life will be easy. In this context, ‘straight’ is not about the “ease of our travel” but about “the direction of our true destination.”1
Like the Israelites of old, we are faced with the biggest choice each time a response or decision is required – whom will we trust?1 And the hope of our Father is that rather than leaning on our own understanding, we will lean on Him!
Trust, Practically
Trusting God with ‘all our heart’ is not to ignore our abilities to think or choose, nor to deny our emotions, all of which are God-given. Rather it’s a submission, a placing of all of them under God, so that we become open to receiving the grace to trust Him (Proverbs 3:6).
So, let’s get practical. How does this work in the dailyness of life?
In my imperfect, yet growing understanding of what trusting God looks like, I recognize my perpetual need of keeping truths about God in front of me all the time. My propensity to fall back on old habits and responses requires constant saturation of Scripture.
I’m learning to put into practice the biblical mandates to stay in God’s Word. To meditate on them day and night (Joshua 1:8). To “see wonderful things in [God’s] law” (Psalm 119:18). It’s putting faith in the fact that God’s actual Word is “a light to my path” (v.105). It’s trusting that God is leading “me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3 ESV).
There’s a direct connection between knowing God’s Word and knowing God’s will! Scripture gives us the truth of who God is, how Jesus lived while on the earth, and how we’re meant to live in this world. The Bible teaches us what righteous living looks like and gives us commands to obey.
Some decisions lend themselves easily to such practical applications, such as the choice of what I will write next. God has blessed me with a love for words – and His Word. That means He desires that I use my passions and gifts but in a surrendered sort of way. So I ask, “Lord, what do You want to say?” as I sit before my blank screen. Yet before I ever get to that question, I’ve already read the Bible as well as trusted teachings. I continually listen to Scripture-saturated songs. Sometimes I’ll journal prayers to God or even walk around my room processing out loud with Him. And when I feel especially stuck, I reread the colorful sticky-notes hanging above my desk because they contain previously-given truths that have a way of re-aligning or re-inspiring me. The Word is all around me and in me.
And somewhere along the way, God leads.
Other times the choices are of a different sort – how do I encourage my friend? Should I hop on a plane to help a loved one? What house should we buy? What’s my role at church? Which of the two options sitting before me is the right one? What’s the best treatment plan? How do I help my child? What’s mine to do?
The list of choices we face every single day goes on and on. And very few of those decisions have explicit instructions in the Bible. So, in addition to knowing the Word, we must also invite Holy Spirit into our “everyday, ordinary…sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around” lives, asking Him to to change us from the inside-out (Romans 12:1-2 MSG).
Word + Spirit.
When we know God’s nature and what His heart desires for our lives, our ‘hearts’ have knowledge to direct our choices – because no choice should ever stand opposed to God’s Word. At the same time, as we allow the Spirit to transform us “by the renewal of our minds,” we more easily come to “recognize what He wants from” us (ditto).
“The Spirit takes the Word and begins shaping our thinking, molding our emotions” – so that even when there’s not an explicit command in the Bible for a decision we face, we are able to “weigh all alternatives with the mind of Christ.”3 This looks like employing daily rhythms that put us in God’s presence and give us God’s perspective. This way of abiding in Christ aligns our hearts with God’s heart.
So, practically speaking, I don’t do the journaling, the processing aloud, the listening to God’s Word for every single decision in a day. But I do start each day with Him. I do my best to pause, in the moment, before I respond to what’s before me in order to remember all that God has been teaching me and to give space for the Spirit to speak.
Part of trusting God is believing with all our hearts that He will lead us when we lean on Him. \So we pray, listen, obey – and make a choice. We take a step forward by faith and with grace.
We trust that God has us where he wants us, right there “in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah…with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it” (Ephesians 2:7-8 MSG).
All we do is trust Him enough to let Him save us, shower us with grace, and lead us toward the true destination – which is always and forever His presence.
Friends, whatever path we find ourselves on, God desires to lead us – by His righteousness, for His glory and our good. Our role is to trust God enough to believe that He is always faithful and that we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. We trust that daily, godly rhythms are doing a holy, attuning work in us. And we believe that our ability to trust God comes by the power of grace. Daily manna-grace.
May we remember God’s faithfulness and allow that truth to build our trust in Him.
May we lean on God rather than on our own understanding.
May we believe in the connection between knowing God’s Word and God’s will.
May we soak ourselves in Scripture and immerse ourselves in the Spirit every day so that our hearts and minds are being transformed
May we embrace the grace showered upon us so that we trust God in all we think and say and do.
Father God, we desire to trust You with all that we are and all that we have. And yet so often we default to our own plans or to an old way of thinking; we lean on our own understanding instead of You. So, we confess that we desire to leave the ‘old’ behind. We long for a renewal of our minds. “Thank You for your Word that informs the principles of our lives and for the Spirit that shapes our emotions and priorities so that we can make decisions your way.”3 Lord Jesus, we thank You for the grace You extend to us – for the way it empowers our trust and aligns our minds with the Father’s. We recognize our role in trusting God begins with knowing God and His Word. So, we pray that all the kindness and grace You shower upon us will do a work in us – a work of attuning our hearts with God’s so that we will better discern the path God has for us. Holy Spirit, we ask that You would do a work in us, transforming us from the inside-out. We know that You are our source of power and wisdom, so we come to the throne of grace with confidence, seeking the grace to trust God in all things. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(inspired by Proverbs 3:5-6; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-9; Psalm 23:3; Psalm 119:105; Psalm 9:10; Hebrews 4:16)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
PS – When I set out to write this post, I wasn’t planning on it being so much about decision-making. However, as Scripture kept coming into my line of vision, that’s where the Word seemed to lead. We trust God in more than our choices. However, even our responses to life and people are choices. So, maybe that’s where God has been leading us all along! As I thought about trusting God in our decision-making, the idea of what happens when we fret too much over making ‘the right’ choice – the ‘one’ God wants us to make – came to mind. I have watched my younger self and other women absolutely freeze with fear in such situations. We get so afraid of making the wrong decision, it’s like we get analysis paralysis. We worry that we’ll miss what God is saying, so we wait. And wait. And never make a choice. So it seems extremely important to recognize that when we put the effort into placing ourselves before the throne of grace, part of the confidence we are given is that God will still be God in whatever decision we make. He will fulfill His purposes for us (Psalm 57:2). He will be present with us (Isaiah 41:10). His love for us will always be everlasting (Jeremiah 31:3) – and nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). These are truths about God even in our decision-making. So we need to trust that He will not give up on us any more than He gave up on the Israelites. Instead, we look to Him, we read His Word, we talk to trusted believers, and we make the best choices we can – then trust God with the rest.
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – I’m still making my way through, Gracelaced,^ Ruth Chou Simons’ gorgeous book about “heart seasons.” Her artwork wows me — though I know my attempts of sharing some of it here falls short. (At the time of this writing, the book is on sale at Amazon for nearly half-off!!)
- 2 – The Bible Project has created a great video about the Hebrew way of understanding the ‘heart’, and it aids our understanding of what Proverbs 3:5 is exhorting us to do!
- 3 – Taken from John Piper’s article , “How Does God Lead Us in Daily Decisions?”
- Our playlist, Embracing Grace. has so many great songs packed full of Scripture and encouragement. I can’t encourage you enough to keep songs with lyrics of truth playing as often as possible — because music impacts every part of our brains! And the words really stick! So if the words and The Word, we’re soaking Scripture in well-beyond our time with God each morning. This week, make note of “Here with Me” by MercyMe. Always brilliant and often witty word-smiths, this band blesses us with catchy lyrics that will keep reminding us of the constant call on us to surrender all our responses to life to Jesus: “Caught up in the wonder of your touch, here in this momentum I surrender to your love. I surrender to your grace. I surrender to the One who took my place.”
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. There’s nowhere better to know Christ than in His Word, so throughout this series, we’ll grab hold of one passage each week and embrace the rhythm of starting our day with God and His Word every morning.
- This week our passage is Ephesians 2:7-8 MSG. The entire opening ten verses of Ephesians two are powerful and impactful, but honed in on the way Euguene Peterson wrote these two particular verses for this post. God has us where He wants us (previous verse tells us) — WITH CHRIST! He’s done it all, given us all we need — so we. just. trust.
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it..” –Ephesians 2:7-8 MSG - We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Arjun Kapoor on Unsplash.
^Denotes an affiliate link, with which this ministry earns a bit to help it keep going. 😉