ApprehendingGrace.com

⁵    Trust in the LORD with all your heart
     and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶    in all your ways acknowledge him,
     and he will direct your paths
                 Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust, Lean, Acknowledge
Trust God. Lean on Him, not your own understanding. He is trustworthy. Seek Him for wisdom. He gives it generously to those who ask. He knows the big picture. You don’t. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths.

“He Will Direct Our Paths”
Your translation of the Bible might say “He will make your paths straight.” The word that’s translated “direct” or “straight” really means both things (and an exciting third thing we’ll see in a minute).

He will direct our paths - We can have confidence that God will give us direction. He will put people in our paths that make the action we should take clear, or He will whisper into our spirit which choice is the right choice for now, or He will highlight a verse of Scripture that makes it clear which direction we should take. He will direct our paths.

He will make our paths straight - He will also straighten out the path, making it smoother, avoiding some of the obstacles that we would run headlong into. He will keep our meandering, “wandering in the wilderness” to a minimum - when we trust God and acknowledge Him in all our ways, we’ll only wander when God has a purpose for it. I like that. Wandering with a purpose!

He will find the “well fitted” path - The word translated “direct” or “straight” also means “well fitted.” I love this! God will direct each of us to the path that is well fitted to us - the one that fits us like a glove. One of the ways the word is used in the Old Testament is in the discussion of the building of the Solomon’s Temple. There is a discussion of carved pieces of wood that are overlaid with gold. When gold is overlaid on wood, it is perfectly molded to the wood. The word “overlaid” is the same word as used in Proverbs 3:6. That’s pretty exciting to me. God is going to lead me in the paths that are perfectly molded to fit me, the one that best matches my talents and temperament and passions. He knows those things better than I do because He created me in my mother’s womb. He knew me before the world was formed. The path He will lead me in will be the best fit possible - and that will be incredibly satisfying.

And He’s just waiting for me to rely on Him for guidance. He is eager to lead me into those perfect places, even joyful watching me take those steps that demonstrate my trust of Him.

There’s one more blog in this series - the practicals of putting it all in action. Watch for the next blog.

 All this happened so they would follow His principles and obey His laws. Praise the LORD!  
          Psalm 105:45 (NLT)

Prior to this verse (i.e., the “all this” that the verse is referring to), is a recitation of the entire history of the Israelites. In other words, God is saying that all that had happened occurred so that they would follow God’s principles and obey His laws.

Do we operate from this mindset, thinking - knowing - that everything that happens to us is for the same purpose - to help us follow God’s principles and obey His laws? Or do we kick against things that are happening in our lives, resisting God’s constant nudging toward Christ-likeness? Perhaps we simply blame Satan for all the bad things that happen to us. Scripture clearly teaching that Satan seeks to defeat us, but it also clearly teaches that God is sovereign and that He allows difficulty into our lives to form and shape us into the image of Christ. That constant kneading, pushing and pulling is the very Hand of God shaping us into the piece of pottery He has designed us for. And sometimes (often times?) that kneading, pushing and pulling hurts.

Many years ago I shattered my elbow. My orthopedic surgeon said it looked like someone had taken a sledge hammer to it! It wasn’t a sledge hammer, it was a gymnasium floor. I had fallen while playing volleyball at a denominational retreat/conference. I had gone to be refreshed and strengthened in the Lord. Instead I got an extremely painful injury that took months of recovery time and yielded a lifetime of some disability. Satan? No, it was clearly God!

After sitting with my husband during my elbow surgery, a friend received a vision. As he drove home, he saw a picture of me in my hospital bed with a very large angel by my bedside stroking my injured arm. Wow. Wow!

For weeks I had tremendous pain in my arm, often shooting pains from just wiggling a little finger. But I frequently went back to that vision and imagined that the pains were caused by the angel massaging my arm so that I would some day be able to use it again. I knew the Lord was bringing healing. Three different doctors had told me I’d be lucky if I ever got 70% of the use of my arm back. After much prayer and therapy, not to mention an excellent surgeon, I have 95% use of my arm. For all intents and purposes I am able to use my arm to do all the things I need to do. I can’t move heavy tables and I have to make adjustments when I pull heavy luggage. Small prices to pay for the many lessons that came from the experience!

A couple of weeks ago I pulled my white car out of the garage , being very careful not to hit the side-view mirror against the door of the garage…and slammed it quite solidly into the rear side panel and bumper of our gray car. Again, I was in the process of doing a good thing - I was driving to church where I was bringing the morning message  – a message that I was absolutely certain was of God and for that very day. As I type this, our car is in the body shop having a large dent hammered out, a new bumper put on, and a new coat of paint slathered on to cover any evidence of damage. Were the car able to “feel” these things, I imagine it would be pretty painful. (As it is, it will only be painful to my wallet and the insurance company.)

My point is that God is at work in our lives all the time, and sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it hurts a lot. But He is still at work, so that we learn to follow Him more closely and have a greater impact on others. It’s time for us to imagine…no, it’s time for us to know that it is God working in us, hammering out the dents, massaging the broken areas. Let’s not resist God’s efforts to make us more like Christ. And let’s remember to look back at all that He has done in our lives - they happened so that we would follow His principles and obey His laws.

Praise the Lord!

We recently studied the book of Jonah. One of the lessons from the book is that obedience (and disobedience) to the Lord impacts those around us significantly. Jonah’s obedience impacted not only his life, but the lives of the sailors on the ship to Tarshish and the Ninevites. In the Old Testament we see God working hard to instill this principle in His people by establishing community rules, community blessings and community punishments. One man sins in secret (Achan) and the army loses its battle at Ai. One woman helps the spies and she saves not only herself but also her family. In doing so Rahab became a great grandmother of David — that puts her in the direct lineage of Jesus! Her obedience has had a direct impact on my life! Now that’s far reaching affects!

Yes, Your Obedience Impacts Others
We forget this in our society. “I’m my own person” we think. “I can do what I want with my body” we hear. And we live our lives oblivious of the wear and tear on those around us — both those we know and those we don’t know.

It’s a scary thing to think that my obedience to the Lord can impact people I’ve never met and will never know. But it can and I would even go further to say that it does. Because when I only say “it can” that leaves an “out” for me to think “well, yeah, it CAN, but will it really?” Yes, it really will.

A.W. Tozer was saved in Akron, Ohio after walking past a church and hearing the preacher say “If you want to know Jesus, go to your attic and ask God to reveal Him to you.” C.S. Lewis was curious so he followed the preacher’s instructions. And He came to know Christ. Every single person who has been impacted by anyone who has been impacted by anything C.S. Lewis wrote or said owes a debt to that unnamed preacher in Akron, Ohio. Mr. No Name Preacher’s obedience to the Lord has impacted my life.

Your Struggles in Obedience Lead to Your Maturity
I have occasionally had people tell me that something I did or said really impacted them and strengthened their walk with the Lord. My typical reaction is “really?” or “who, me?” Now I’m Christian-ized enough to actually say something like “Praise God!” or “God is good, isn’t He?” But I’m thinking “are you kidding me? I didn’t do anything? I’m just struggling to live out my own walk with Him.”

But it’s in that struggle of everyday living that we rub shoulders with others and that rubbing sometimes offers encourages, sometimes sharpens edges that have become dull and sometimes rounds off overly sharp edges. “Maturity flows form the mundane,” our pastor said last week. The getting up and going to work every day, the taking care of the family, the give and take of a good marriage. The mundane.

God Has Already Figured Out All There is to Figure Out in Your Obedience
Sometimes I’m not quickly obedient because I think my obedience will have a negative impact on others around me. How wrong is that thinking? If God has told me to do something, yes I need to be sensitive to those around me, but I also need to trust that He has (or will) use my obedience to work in their lives — regardless of what it seems to me the (negative) impact of that obedience will be. Because He’s already figured out all that stuff. All I need to do is take the next step of obedience. Because it really does impact those around me…for their good as well as mine.

Comment by dansdesk
Eli starts Kindergarten today. I have this constantly nagging thought about how much my disobedience will affect him and his siblings. I so desperately want them not to repeat my sins. I once heard Rob Bell say that one way to honor your father and mother was not to repeat their sins.
Tuesday August 21, 2007 - 06:28am (EDT)

Response by Sandyhov
Big Day at the Grhamm household!
Tuesday August 21, 2007 - 10:25am (EDT)

Comment by Sandyhov
I’ve been pondering Dan’s last comment…that he once heard Rob Bell say that one way to honor your father and mother is not to repeat their sins. I’m not sure how that works…I guess it’s honoring to them because it means we were paying attention? I agree that a life well-lived honors our parents. Otherwise, I don’t quite get the connection. Anybody out there have any thots?
Thursday August 23, 2007 - 10:55pm (EDT)