Pray:
Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Proverbs 3:5-6,
“5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Understand:
Why can we trust in the Lord? Because of His mighty attributes; He is unchanging, unfailing, unerring, absolute, illimitable, and never-ending.
“Lean not on your own understanding” doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think through decisions we need to make or that we shouldn’t use our God-given minds. Far from it! He created us as thinking beings; He’s given us the ability to reason and think. The writer is telling us that we need to think through things in total submission with God’s will and a complete awareness of His superior knowledge and wisdom about things that concern us.
Think about it… He knows the end from the beginning. He knows the number of stars in the heavens. He spoke and everything came in to existence. He holds the stars in the palm of His hand. Everything finds it’s meaning in Him. Yet, He knows you personally. He knows every detail of your being, the number of days you have, the time and place that you would come into this world. And here’s the part that really gets me…He wants to have a personal relationship with each one of us! He finds delight in us…you and me. We are but a speck in all of His great creation, yet we’re full of great value. It’s humbling!
This great Creator God we’ve just described, Proverbs tells to acknowledge by saying “Lord, I want to turn this situation completely over to you…I desire to do your perfect will.” If we can do these things, we can trust that He will direct our ways. We can trust that He will give us wisdom to do what’s best and lead us on the right path.
Apply:
This is such a great verse! You and I can be assured this year of divine guidance. Think about that…it’s absolutely the best news we could get. We can be assured that God has given us all we need to know His will. We don’t have to worry that we will miss it; we only have to listen.
Remember the passage we looked at in Matthew 6 earlier in the week, where we see Jesus telling His disciples to look to the birds of the air and how God takes care of them? We can find comfort this year as we reflect on the God who can guide birds in their migratory paths and at the same time sets and maintains the planets in their orbits. This is the One who has appointed a way for our lives to be lived; He is the one that will lead us accordingly.
As you move forward this year will you trust Him? Will you submit your ways to Him?
Live:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.