Key Verse: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
Sam was telling us about his fishing trip with his brother Tim. They had just returned from up north and it had been a great time. “We had arranged with Charlie, our guide,” said Sam, “that he would pick us up at the hotel in the morning for the first day of fishing. When he arrived, he told us to wait a minute before we got in the truck. He said there was going to be some pretty steep climbing after we left the truck. Then he laid out a map on the hood of the truck and showed us where we would fish and the route we were going to take.”
Our friend Bill interrupted: “Boy, that’s interesting. The guy we had a guide a couple of years ago never showed us anything on the map. He just said, “Follow me.”
These illustrate two ways of giving guidance. One way is to lay out the route on a map, but the other is just to say, “Follow me.” When I came to know Christ as a teenager, the preacher gave me a Bible, and in it he had written several Bible references. One of them was Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” This doesn’t say whether the Lord uses the map method or the follow-me method, but it does say He will guide us.
The requirement is wholehearted trust. I’m not to lean on my own understanding; I’m to trust in God’s wisdom. He knows best. He may not show me the way ahead on a map. He may just say, “Follow me.” But what I can be sure of is that He knows the way and He wants me to find it.
In my life, God has more often shown how He has led rather than how He willlead. I have most often seen the guidance of God in the rearview mirror. If I have trusted him and just taken the next step by faith, I’ve been able to look back and see God’s leading. On very few occasions have I seen it clearly ahead of time.
Some people, of course, like to see the map. They like to know what lies ahead. And God will accommodate that kind of temperament if He so chooses. But sometimes He will ask those people just to trust Him and to step out in faith. when Abraham’s name is listed in the great catalog of faith in Hebrews 11, the first thing that is said about him is this: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (v. 8). He is commended for his wholehearted trust in God.
It’s the way of the world is to be self-sufficient and independent, God’s way is to walk by faith, and faith is dependence.
Prayer: Lord, help me to trust in you with all my heart, to acknowledge you in every path I walk, at every fork in the road. Help me not to lean on my own understanding but to trust in your guidance day by day. When I don’t know where the path will lead, help me to take the next step by faith.
Author: Lindsay Hislop was raised in southern Scotland and southern Ontario and now lives in the southern United States. He worked in the engineering field for 15 years (mostly in Canada) before pursuing an academic career. He has taught for over thirty years at Columbia International University. He also serves as an elder in his church, where he teaches and preaches regularly. He is married to a wonderful wife Pam and has two terrific children, Holly, who lives in Canada, and Doug, who lives in Columbia. His four grandchildren, Isaac, Madeline, Lindsay, and Dolan, are also pretty special. He likes doing carpentry and odd jobs around the house.
